THIS BUDGET IS A LONG, ARDUOUS MARCH OF HOPE

The govt skirted minefields of populism and opted for a structural approach on many demands. The moves will be deemed transformative only when they hit the ground

- SHANKKAR AIYAR

A budget is, quintessentially, an expression of pious political intent. It is an occasion for the government to assuage political constituents even as it massages economic impulses.

Budget 2024-25 arrived at the intersection of political compulsions and economic imperatives. The ricochet of rhetoric through the elections and the diminished tally of the ruling regime on one side and distance between headline GDP growth, private consumption and absence of feel-good factors catalysed expectations across segments of the political economy.

The craft of budgets is both an art and a science. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's 90-minute speech spread over about 7,800 words acknowledges the highdecibel cries of distress heard from the bottom of the income pyramid and visible in Verdict 2024. Yet, the exercise has eschewed profligacy-in promising to bring down the fiscal deficit to 4.9 percent of GDP, it has managed to preserve the doctrine of fiscal prudence.

The artful management of politics is visible in the financial engineering. In the run up to the budget, the two allies—the TDP and the JD(U) declared the price for their support and issued demand notes. In its optics, the speech recognises the allies, but the response besides GPS mapping of infrastructure spending in the states—is a modified IOU. Requests for special treatment have been listed for arrangements with multilateral development banks.

The challenge before the government after February's interim budget was on utilising the ₹1-lakh-crore-plus bonanza it received from the Reserve Bank of India and higher realisation in taxes. The demands ranged from tax breaks to the middle class, higher payouts to farmers, a national rollout of cash transfers for women, a new welfare scheme for women, and so on.