An Ardent Effort To Woo Voters

In response to opposition’s farm loan waiver, the government shelled out several schemes for farmers.

- Arindam Mukherjee

The BJP-led NDA government at the centre made a fervent and full pelt election pitch in Budget 2019, fraught with sugarcoated sops for the farmer, the small industry, defence and the marginalised. What’s more! There is even something for the middle and lower middle class, a group the government had conveniently forgotten for most of its five years in rule as well as the social sector, which had its scanty attention so far.

Striking a very clear populist note, interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal’s maiden budget made a prominent pro-poor and pro-farmer pitch to please a large part of the electorate in the election year.

While there are a lot of sops and schemes, revenue generation and source of funds remains a question. What is, however, a matter of worry is the increasing fiscal deficit. The finance minister stated that the fiscal deficit for 2019-20 will be at a higher side at 3.4 per cent of the GDP.

Killol Pandya, Head, Fixed Income, Essel Mutual Fund, said, “From the fiscal deficit angle, the borrowing is higher than expected and the revenue sources might be seen as ambitious. Concerns over fiscal deficit pressure may cause bond markets to remain cautious.”

The budget speech, a large part of which was in Hindi keeping with the BJP tradition, made a last-ditch attempt to woo farmers as if in response to the Congress Party’s farm loan waiver.

The most prominent among them was the new Pradhan Mantri Kisan Nidhi Yojana that promises to provide a minimum income of 6,000 to small farmers annually. This largesse will be given to them in three installments of 2000 each. The government has promised to allot 75,000 crore for this for 2019-20.