Today Narendra Modi Government has its second Budget in the second term. Through the day, I was watching the Business Channels and the general consent was that under the pressing circumstances post-Pandemic, this was a great budget and experts who have their skin in the game have given it between 8 out-of-10 to even 11 out-of-10. The markets responded by saluting the Finance Minister, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman by rising to the occasion by an extent which was highest since 1997. However, by the time, the dusk descended, I logged on to the usual News Channels. AajTak, which has been blatantly propagating Communist propaganda surrounding the fake Sikh Farmer Protests, decided that the Budget discussion needs to have Farmers' angle. Congress, which ruled over India, by proxy with a PM with fake residential Address, fielded the Economists. Yesterday, there was Nobel Laureate Economist Abhijit Banerjee who quoted Oxfam report on rising inequalities globally in the aftermath of COVID, as a result of almost global lockdown. He suggested increased taxes on the rich people to counter that, leaning on the old Communist idea of redistribution of wealth. This theory is almost in line with another Congress Economist's idea who was caught recently illegally holding land in Shanti Niketan. Coincidentally, Dr. Banerjee is in the employment of Ford Foundation with a networth of around 6 Mn and Amartya Sen is linked to the family of Rothschild (world's richest family with networth of around 400 Bn) and has a networth of around around 16 Mn. Co-incidentally, the nobel Laureate has been critical of Modi Government on all his economic Policy and his protege John Dreze was on Sonia Gandhi's NAC which ran the UPA Government by proxy and Rothschild's were given a 30 Crore project for e-Auction of 3G bandwidth during UPA, in spite of not having any background. Soon the fact that in spite of the Government being pressed for funds due to Covid and all wise Left-leaning Economists advising otherwise, the taxes remain unchanged.
The system was quickly in action, building on the expectation of reduction of Taxes, which is common every year. Obviously you cannot catch an economist on the wrong foot, because they always have two hands. I refer here to the famous quote by Harry S Truman (US President- 1945-53) who said,
"Give me a one-handed Economist. All my economists say 'on one hand..', then 'but on the other.' "
I think, under the circumstances, no change in taxes is a positive thing. In fact, the provisions of tax collection have been made citizen friendly. Politicians will try to build on the middle-class frustrations. The fact remains that taxes cannot continue to go down every year. What the citizen wants is not to be exempted of taxes; rather the citizen wants visibly justified usage of the taxes the Government collects. With cleaner cities, better trains and transportation, improved schooling and healthcare, a stagnant tax immediately after Pandemic is something no nationalist citizen minds. As American Jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes said-
"I like paying taxes. With them, I buy civilization."
The politicians often believe common citizens to be greedy and corrupt. This is not true. In 2020 the returns filed have doubled from 3.31 Crore people in 2014 to 6.48 Crores. Senior Citizens have been exempted from the requirement of filing returns. The harassment and corruption by authorities have curtailed by reducing the re-opening of the cases to 3 years from earlier 6 years. Even in Serious Tax fraud case, where 10 year ceiling is there, it can be brought upon only if the evasion amounts to more than 50 Lakhs. The lower amount of Tax Audit exemption has been moved from 1 Cr to 5 Cr and now to 10 Cr, for Businesses supporting digital business.
The fiscal deficit is pegged at 9.5% in 19-20 which is decent in current circumstances and it goes back to comfortable range of 6.8% this budget. Thankfully, the government has decided to make citizen capable to walk with spine held straight and not to throw doles, even while being supportive with PLI schemes. These schemes were launched for thirteen sectors earlier, which have helped Indian Companies increase business, improve production, and helps India look at the GDP growth rate of around 11 Percent. To get a context, one would do well to remember that the GDP Growth rate under the Eminent Economist who was face of UPA, was 4.7% without any pandemic hounding the government then. Let us also remember that the Congress was given a GDP growth rate of 8.3 Percent in 2004.
When the Pandemic happened, we as a nation, left by Communist-Congress Combo with no PPE kits, gap in supply of Ventilators. The now charged with corruption but eloquent English-speaking FM left us with ZERO PPE manufacturing capabilities. The ex-FM charged with corruption came and spoke on India Today and arrogantly claimed that he will debate but only when there is the right kind of opponent in his famous aristocratic arrogance. This situation of March 2020 was turned around quickly by May when India was making surplus PPE kits. The investment in Health has been changed from 1.3 percent of the GDP in 2014 to 1.8 percent of the GDP now. In absolute terms, the allocation of 1.56 Lakhs Crore, is this year 2.4 Lakh Crores. The good thing is that it is not a plan in air, but has a great deal of detailing done by the FM. So it has 35000 Crores towards Vaccination in 2021-22.
The investment toward Education has been increased to 3.5 Percent of GDP. One point that the Congress FM from yesteryears raised was that the budget was protectionist. This was along the expected lines, looking at the Congress- China Agreement. It is pretty interesting that the same Party which claims the Government has thrown farmers to foreign powers attacks the increase in import duty. The import duty has been increased from 5% to 15% across Agriculture to Chemicals to Leather and Plastics, Auto, Capital Goods and Gem & Jewellery. On the other hand, the import duty on input raw materials has been reduced to reduce the cost of manufacture in India particularly for Defense and Aviation.
There is a huge infrastructure push in the budget. We were ruled for long time by governments which believed in throwing crumbs at citizens, and did not think we need good roads and bridges until AB Vajpayee came in. This budget has plan for flagship projects like Delhi-Mumbai (260 Kms), Bengaluru- Chennai Expressway, Delhi Dehradun, Lucknow Kanpur, Chennai-Salem, Raipur -Vishakhapattanam, Amritsar- Jamnagar, Delhi-Katra.
Thankfully, in spite of immense pressure the Government has waded out of the Communism conundrum. The Communists arrest Jack Ma and Entrepreneurs. The world needs capitalist. Even Communism needs fuel of capitalism to run itself. That is the reason that China turned capitalist itself. The mothership has transformed leaving the alien children in Bengal and Kerala forlorn. Even they need a billionaire like George Soros or Ford Foundation to support their fictitious. Amit Mitra, Ex- Secretary General of FICCI, and now TMC leader criticized the Government for disinvestment plan. The same man however, when he was a rational species and not a politician had attacked the Government in Feb 2013 for being slow with Disinvestment. There is a recent tendency of maligning entrepreneurship and businesses in India. There is an ideological take-over of Congress and the opposition seems to be huddled under the bloody shadow of Hammer and sickle. When Industries prosper, the prosperity trickles down to the last man in the line. Capitalism is the anthem of human achievement. Communism is a flawed philosophy. The decline of intellect in Indian political opposition has allowed Socialism to find feet in India. Let us not allow those who could not implement Swaminathan Commission recommendations for MSP question the current Government on Farmers, the people who could not implement OROP for the want of funds question this Government on Defense. Let us not let them prevail and celebrate this Budge which celebrate the unyielding spirit of India. Let us not be fooled by utopian nonsense of socialism about which Churchill wrote:
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."
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