DOES INTERIM BUDGET 2019 INTEND TO DECREASE THE RICH & POOR GAP

India, nation once known as “The Golden Bird” had suffered many years to get independence. The beautiful country saw many problems during the time of British rule. It was a wealthy country but most of it was gone till the time we got independence and the remaining was eaten up by corruption and black money. There is this illusion of India as the world’s biggest democracy on the path of becoming the world’s next economic superpower but what can decrease poverty level in the country?

Poverty is a circumstances in which one can’t get even the minimum essential necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter. The interim budget 2019-20 contains a list of welfare plans and tax sops focused to explicit segment of the population. Yet there is enormous job crisis in India which has discovered a small respite in interim budget in the form of soaps but not in the form of providing some productive work to needy. 

The government in its prior budgets had declared big ticket expenditure items such as One Rank One Pension, and Ayushman Bharat each of which is a noteworthy channel on the budgetary assets. The interim budget added to the list with the announcement of 'Prime Minister Kisan Yojana' which would pay backing of Rs. 6,000 every year to landholding farmers. The budget also reported an annuity pension scheme which plans to cover about 42 crore workers in the unorganised sector making it one of the biggest benefits schemes of the world. Still the gap between the poor and rich is a major issue in India. It has been in the list of main agenda of political parties however today circumstance is unique and the question is if government initiatives are great and helpful for poor’s then  for what reason we are not able to tackle this problem from so long? If government is giving free education with the food then why the literacy rates in this portion isn’t quantifiable, if there are initiatives for free vaccination then why people are dying in big numbers?

Only money isn’t the issue even Indian governments have been spending quite a lot on the poor people’s and there are plans like Employment guarantee scheme under which they get guarantee of having 100 days’ work with the best wages available and  other food commodities are available in minimal effort for individuals who comes under below poverty line. So money is not the concern and even policies which provide cash won’t be adequate  to solve this problem permanently. In spite of having several pro-poor schemes, the biggest question is whether such benefit is reaching the poor people.

The interim budget, being the torch-bearer should have paved the way for the creation of capital, setting the feeble banking sector for economic growth, allocations for ease of doing business, focus on financing for SMEs instead of freebies, and a concrete plan for logistics investment and infrastructure growth. No new policies to expand incomes were declared, while a number of expenditure measures were reported that will increase outlays and put weight on the government’s ability to meet its fiscal deficit target. The interim budget is a election budget over fiscal prudence, to appease voters in general, and the farmers and the middle-class in particular ahead of the elections will boost consumption.

While every coin has two sides, because some transformational reforms like demonetisation and GST led to short-term pain in rural and MSME sector and resulting slowdown in the pace of economic growth and consumption was affected. Thus it was important for the government to boost the rural/agriculture economy. Scheme such as Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan, will assured monthly pension of Rs. 3,000 with contribution of Rs. 100 per month for unorganised sector workers after 60 years of age. Other tax saving schemes reduces the liability of tax payers, No Tax up to Rs.5,00,000. The benefit will be available through rebates. Overall, budget 2019  expenditure at Rs 27,84,200 crore, making an increase of 13.3% compared to previous budget which gives huge relief to poor and middle class people.

Therefore, all the things put together, it comes down to three main things which can evaluate whether budgets can reduce the poverty in the country. First, awareness & implementation of the schemes, second is skill development for the youth and third, enough employment opportunities for the lower- & middle-class people. If these three are covered in budget and properly implemented then definitely the budget can become an important tool to decrease the gap between the rich and poor in the long run.