The Budget Fidget

So the jury is still out on whether the Union Budget 2018 was the best that the PM-FM duo could have served to meet the expectations of ‘savaa sau crore Bharatwasis’. But what we all obviously have to reconcile to is that a socialist India is now the new normal. The Union Budget 2018 spelled that out loud and clear. And maybe it is time, seven decades into being a sovereign republic, that the majority population, left behind by all benefits of development, science and technology, starts its baby steps in catching up with the resurgent India the world has been witnessing.

The Budget evoked many responses. The most obvious was the middle classes seeking to be recognized as a constituency that needs secure jobs, growth in personal savings and a recognition for being the most consistent, even if minuscule,  contributors to the national exchequer. We expected, and not incorrectly I would say, some rebate for our honest tax filings and easing of bank loans. We sought to be provided with options to improve the status of our flocks & herds in keeping with our soaring aspirations. Alas, that was not to be. As the honorable Finance Minister pontified clearly in all his post budget discourses, enough had been done and provided for the middle classes in his previous few budgets. So now was the turn for the bottom of the pyramid. But all is not lost for us too! Hope abounds in our sunset years when we have been bestowed with enticing tax reliefs and health benefits as senior citizens! Happy recuperation!

I grumbled and whined when the budget allocations were being rolled out. Schemes after schemes for the poor, rural India, agri sector and senior citizens. Mera number kab aayega!! Didn’t I deserve a better deal after paying all my taxes in the highest tax bracket?!  And woe betide the opposition whose continuous ranting about ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’ was countered by the FM gently yet affirmatively slapping the Long Term Capital Gains tax on all of us trying to make an extra buck on the bourses right below his nose! One small slap of the FM, one giant loss for the honest taxpayer! Just when the green shoots of green bucks had started to show fruition in my SIPs and Mutual Funds, suddenly a 10% bite from the fresh fruit was bitten off!

However, once the worst of the post budget despondency was over, I decided to be like Alice and go seeing through the looking glass to get a glimpse of why the Mad Hatter PM-FM duo had plucked my feathers and sewn them to their socialist agenda hat? So down I went the maze of the internet paths and with a lot of Google-ing was able to get just an iota of understanding what really constitutes the underbelly of our population. And boy! Was it an eye opener and how!!

I confess my finding are not scientific and rather amateurish. But if I was able to gather even the slightest reflection of the reality that constitutes India’s people, I rest my case for the demands of the middle class and get some semblance of understanding as to why the budget was so lop-sided in favour of the have-nots.

Here is what I could put together for easy breezy understanding of the complexity that is India. If we slice our country on economic parameters, there emerges a well-defined stratification based on annual earnings, each having a self-descriptive label. So here is what the slices look like of the 130 crore Indians:

Below Poverty Line (BPL) are those earning between Rs.25 - Rs.35/- per day, the poor. About 20%-22% of the population is in this category.

Economically Weaker Section (EWS) is when annual income is up to Rs.60,000/- or Rs.5000/- per month. Almost 40%-42% of the population falls in this category.

Low Income Group (LIG): are those whose annual income falls between Rs. 1 lakh and 2 lakhs per annum. About 30%-35% of the country’s population is in this category.

Middle Class is a colossal group which can be further fragmented into Lower, Middle or Upper Middle Class. About 5-8% of India’s population resides here. The income range is very wide ranging from Rs.2 lacs to 25 lacs per annum.

High Networth Individuals (HNI): An income range between Rs.25 lacs to Rs.1 crore per annum will qualify for High income group. As per Income Tax Department stats, only 4 lac people in India fall in this category.

Ultra High Networth Individuals (UHNI): If the stats of IT Department is to be believed, there are probably 50,000 people in India who are in an income band exceeding Rs. 1 Crore per annum.

Let us assume the data is off by 10 to 15%. Even then, the vast majority of India's 1.3 billion citizens, up to 95%, still qualifies as poor, economically weaker or low-income. Incredulous!! When the budget is seen in this context, my lament does ring dismally hollow. With such a disparity staring at us, do we even begin to understand the pitiable state of existence in which 95% people of our country live? Or do dead men tell no tales? Or do our rose tinted glasses help us see through the Mr. Indias around us? Did time stand still for them over the past seven decades? Did they even care if we are a free country?

The sights of semi-naked children writhing in the sun baked dusty lands of rural India make for a great photo-op. So do the weather beaten faces of women tied to the drudgery of manual labour to earn two meals for their impoverished family.  But when they confront us in real life, we looked away, shake our mental kaleidoscope so that the picture changes to much brighter hues.  In our own life, so full of its own trials and tribulations, who has the time to empathize with those less fortunate than us?  Our self-imposed anguish is so well articulated in the lines from the poem ‘Leisure’– What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.

After this peep through the prism, I rest my case for more alms and rebates for the working middle classes. Yes there is need to create lot more job opportunities for gen-next in every strata of society. Yes we need to move up the value chain with every generation to come. Yes we need great quality education institutes of world repute where teachers from Ivy leagues return to teach. Yes my children deserve a better, more honest, more developed, more healthy India. But so do the children of the shadows who follow us around - unnamed, unheard, uncared for. 

So did Sorcerer Dumbledore Jaitley cast the best magic spell? Like I said, the jury is still out. And it may take the entire series to end before we finally witness the downfall of Lord ‘Poverty’ Voldemort!