Reflections Budget 2018

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented a budget designed to help distressed farmers and rural areas while boosting growth, jobs and private investment as well. He addressed that the government has taken up programmes to direct the benefits of structural changes and good growth to reach farmers and to uplift the under-developed regions. He added that this year’s budget will focus on strengthening agriculture and the rural economy, provision of good health care to economically less privileged and the welfare of senior citizens as well as the creation of infrastructure and ensuring the provision of more resources for the improvement of the quality of education in the country as well.

Media Eye asked eminent personalities for their views on the Budget 2018 and here is what they had to say.

Dr. Sankaran, the Former Chief Secretary of Maharashtra stated, “The Finance Minister has increased the safety net by introducing new health schemes and the fiscal deficit target has also been contained at 3.3% which should be achievable so it won't face any problem regarding that. For individual taxpayers, things like reintroducing standard deductions will also be quite helpful. Also there is a large increase in money going into the rural sector so by and large, it's a good budget.”

Dr. S S Mantha is the Former Chairman of AICTE. He is currently a Professor at NIAS (National Institute of Advanced Studies), Bangalore and the Advisor  To Government Of Andhra Pradesh. He said, “The Educational changes made in the Budget 2018 are something to look forward to but the detailing of the same is really important because I believe that a lot of things have been clubbed under the program RISE (Revitalising of Infrastructure and Systems in Education). A lot of money is allocated under it as well. Divisions have been removed from KG to Class 12 as the entire funding has been clubbed together. However it is difficult to make any comments without knowing where the allocation of the money is going, how much is going in the primary education and how much is going in the secondary education and so on. So that division is required. But the concept of restructuring and reinventing the education in the country is a very good concept but the detailing of it will have to be looked at closely because the rise in the budget is only about 3.5% or 4% from the last year. That doesn’t mean much if you take into consideration things like inflation. Therefore it is important to know where these lac or crore of rupees are going to be spent. Having said that, the concept of black board to digital board is also good but there is a certain age after which you should impart (education) through classroom teaching, teachers must be present. Digital learning can happen only when students are mature enough to understand the difference. So, as a concept it is good—black board to digital board, but you cannot dispense it in a classroom when teaching for a large number of people just because you can’t afford classrooms or schools or things like that. So it is always good to have a conventional education system in the formative years and then move on to digital intervention as we move along. So when they say black board to digital board, we really need to understand what they have in mind and how does it relate to the new education policy which is yet to come. So there must be a relationship with it when they are talking about black board to digital board but personally, I feel in the formative years at least, in schools, there should be a very robust teacher-student relationship because it also builds character. Complete digital education, may not mean much in terms of character building or in terms of interpersonal skills. So, therefore it is a good idea to have a black board kind of education in the formative years and then introduce technology and digital education further on. So as an idea it is good, but the detailing must be done.”

P.K. Vijaykumar, I.R.S, Director General of Income Tax (Retd), Former Insurance Ombudsman, Kerala. He is currently the Independent External Monitor at COCHIN Shipyard Ltd. He assessed, “It is more of an economically correct budget than a politically correct budget because most of the people expected lot of SOPs in the budget before the next 2019 elections but that has not happened and a lot of emphasis has been given to the agriculture sector than MSMEs and there has also been an increase in tax rate for capital gains to 10% which is a welcome move and there is a decreased tax rate in corporate sections in most of the companies whose turnover is more than 250 crore. So most of the companies would get a relief by corporate tax so I think it is a good budget that has even given concessions to salaried employees also by doing a standard deduction and the Finance Minister has also openly declared in the budget speech that the total income returned per person by salaried employees is much more than the total income returned by the business class. It basically points to the fact that there is major tax evasion even today, so that was a very welcoming statement coming from the Finance Minister himself during the budget speech so that also sends a message to the tax officiates to concentrate on tax evasion as well.”

(As Told To Prerna Mistry)