A Numbers Game

The growing irrelevance of the annual budget / Economy

- Himanshu

The annual budget, presented by the finance minister, is one of the most awaited government documents every year. Seen as a statement of account of the nation—it spells out how the government intends to mobilise resources and spend public money—these documents show the economic priorities and the agenda of the government. Unlike many other government documents, budgets are presented to the parliament, debated and voted upon, and thus, the commitments made in a budget document assume a certain sanctity.

However, since the National Democratic Alliance government came to power in 2014, this sanctity has been fast eroding and is virtually extinct at this point. The government has repeatedly taken decisions that contradict commitments made in the budget, making the mandatory parliamentary approval of the budget a farce. The numbers presented in the budget over the last few years, just like other economic data put out by the government, hide more than they present. This reduces the document to little more than a media-management exercise.