Mainstream WeeklyFebruary4, 2025
Finance Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the year 2025-26 a few days ago. Not being an economist, my focus is largely on the political aspects which surrounded budget making.
At the very outset, I like to submit that the presentation of the budget should not have been on 1st February , but, on or after 3rd February, as it was not proper to do so when campaigning for the Delhi Assembly elections were very much on. Well, some might say that the date for presentation of the Union Budget has been fixed for 1st February and as such it had to be presented. But, not long ago, as we know, the budget used to be presented on the last day of February. The central point of my argument is that the BJP-led government hoped to take political and electoral advantage of some of the key features of the budget during the reminder of the campaign period. This was done by none other than Prime Minister Modi in his campaign speeches across Delhi, by invoking the raise in the income tax limit to 12 lakhs. Indeed, he alluded in his speeches to the tax concessions to the middle class by describing the budget as the middle class budget! Though technically the benefits of tax concessions would be for the year 2025-26, the optics that the government is concerned about the tax payers