Budget Season is here… Expectations from FM...

William Congreve said “Uncertainty and Expectation are the joys of Life”. Going by that, Feb is a very joyous month for Indians as there is quite a bit of “uncertainty” as to what the Budget augurs for us as well a lot of “expectations” for ourselves and the nation too!

HOUSEWIVES

Without doubt the Indian Housewife wants the FM to do something and anything to ensure that the prices of basic food and vegetables (a.k.a onions, drumsticks, garlic) do not go high as they have done in the last few months. Onions have literally caused tears in most households and there is a great expectation that the FM would come up with some good ideas to curb the rising prices.

Many housewives would also be eagerly hoping that the price of Domestic LPG remains untouched. There is constant pressure on the FM to reduce the burden of subsidy on LPG and he could look at increasing prices of domestic LPG cylinders.

TAX PAYING JANTA

With the inflation at a high, the tax payers would like to see a progress to the proposals of the new taxes code which envisage raising the first slab (10%) to Rs 10 lakh instead of the current 1.6-5 Lakh slab. This would be beneficial to a big chunk of the working populace as most people in the middle-middle class and upper middle class have an income in excess of 5 lakhs per annum.

FARMERS

The much touted National Rural Guarantee Scheme has played havoc with Farmers. Easy jobs with a guaranteed salary from the NREG have made big numbers of farm labor to migrate away from the hard work and low pay of agriculture work. This has resulted in a very acute shortage of workers and is seen as a major cause for the rise in prices of farm products.

Even a good monsoon has not brought any cheer to the farmer as he does not have labourers to harvest his crop! The farming community is expecting the FM to scrap this populist scheme or ensure that migration of farm labourers is plugged.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The last budget had promised a greener land with over 40% of total outlay on Infrastructure. But, sadly nothing much has happened apart from all the so called development at Delhi on the onset of CWG. The aam aadmi expects the FM to keep the same focus by allocating more funds to infrastructure development along with a framework to ensure that his good intentions are implemented at the ground level.

Source: Reuters/Bank Bazaar Survey