Ready reckoner
1 WHAT IS THE > UNION BUDGET
The annual Budget is a statement of the government’s accounts, but also lays out the plan to mobilise resources to be spent on national development. But the money can be spent only after Parliament approves it.
2 > HOW THE BUDGET AFFECTS US
Central spending on roads, metro lines, agriculture helps make our lives more comfortable. Focus on rural schemes makes the villages better off, boosts demand, incentivises formation of new companies, and creates jobs. The 2020 edition arrives when economic revival looks tough.
3 WHAT IS ITS SIZE
In a bid to give boost to consumption and investments, the Budget enhances capital spending, and retains big-ticket rural allocations, taking the total expenditure to ~30 trn, or 15% of GDP.
4 BUT HOW BIG > IS ~30 TRN
For a populace of the size of 1.3 billion, the current Budget entails an average spending of ~23,000 per Indian, or nearly 17 per cent of an average Indian’s annual income.
5 WHAT'S IN STORE > THIS YEAR
Income tax rates have been slashed, but can be availed of only if the taxpayer lets go of most exemptions. This is expected to benefit only those who avail of the least of them, for example, millennials, according to calculations by Deloitte. The government expects to lose ~40,000 crore or nearly 0.2% of GDP due to this.
6 IS THE > BALANCING ACT SIMPLE?
No. the government, on its own, would be able to earn only ~12.2 trillion worth of money, and thus plans to borrow ~8 trillion, or nearly a fourth of the enhanced spending. Very similar to how households borrow to make ends meet.
7 WHAT, THEN, > IS THE CRUX OF THE BUDGET
In a situation in which the government needs to spend more — to boost demand — but is able to earn less, it has decided to borrow more to raise spending on roads, farmers, smart cities and pay more interest on loans in coming years. But borrowing from outside of the budget books has assumed a bigger proportion.
8 WHAT ARE THE > KEY REVENUE SOURCES
To manage this, the government expects to rake in a bounty from selling off public companies, dividend from state-owned companies, telecom dues and GST, income tax to some extent.
9 > WHAT ARE THE SPENDING PRIORITIES
This is where the government has shown a clear focus on infrastructure, but the rural focus, started in Jaitley’s tenure, has taken a backseat due to limited funds. Bank recapitalisation has not been announced, but that for insurances companies is in place this year. Urban projects are not neglected, too. Here are the key areas where spending was ramped up.
10 WHAT LIMITS > GOVERNMENT’S SPENDING ABILITY
A large chunk of money needs to be spent on salaries of officials, defence personnel, subsidies and interest payments towards the pile of debt, and these cannot be rolled over, or let go. They eat up a sizeable chunk of available resources.