Union Budget: A Repeatitive Juvenile mistake

Each year Union budget is presented in Lok Sabha by Finance Minister (FM). Each year there is plethora of new announcements and schemes, which appears more a sycophancy of elite rather than concrete solutions, juxtaposed with brief announcement of fiscal deficit. I want to shed light on pseudo-significance of the kind of budget that is being presented and passed in Lok Sabha. If you give money to a housewife for the domestic expenditure of an year, she can tell the each minute detail involving gains and Losses and can tell you the reason behind a failure of particular investment. Not only this, she will modify her demand for the next year expenditure as result of last year's experience. If a common housewife can analyze all the reasoning behind the expenses with finesse, what's wrong with the policy makers and our economists. Either they are juvenile or are too reluctant to ameliorate.

I've never heard in any budget when last budget's failures, and flaws, have been told along with the reasons and what measures have been taken to avoid any previous repetition next year. If FM can't tell its people the percentage of success, also region-wise, along with the definition of success for a particular policy, how the public would come to know that a particular policy is worth continuing.

For example if government has implemented Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment guarantee Act(MGNREGA) and mentions in each successive budget just the amount involved in the scheme, with no concern to the hitherto percentage of success, what better it can achieve in next year in continuation. Government increases the amount of money involved in this scheme. But it's reluctant to tell the people in which region it is being implemented successfully and in which region it is a fiasco. Because no scheme can have the same result in each region of the country. Thus the next obvious question would arise as what are the reason behind the success or failure also in the particular regions. Along with that which section of the society has been benefited the most, again along with the reasons. Then in the next step we seek the solutions towards overcoming those hurdles and accordingly we change the policy and guide the money. But this involve a culture of revaluation and reviewing, which would be there if those in policy making are anyhow concerned with the common man.

I dont think it's of any use announcing budget, a cliche, each year and just cutting the corners by dividing the money given towards different departments and policies. We need a budget that is based on the research done by the analysts with judicious amendments each year. Let it not be an act of sycophancy of Aam-aadmi. It must contain everything that could ascertain long term welfare of Aam-aadmi. Such bedget is of no-significance.