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budget

will make one lakh villages into Digital available only to foreigners, is now dow. Similarly, the government will
Villages over next five years. This, he going to be made available to Indian end the year with a Current Account
said, will be achieved by expanding the filmmakers as well,” said Goyal. Deficit of 2.5 per cent as against the
Common Service Centres (CSCs). “The The Finance Minister also an- CAD in the previous year of 1.9 per cent.
Common Service Centres are expand- nounced other measures to ease film- Both numbers for the current year
ing their services and also creating digi- making and check piracy. “Regulatory and the estimate of FD for 2019-20 point
tal infrastructure in the villages, includ- provisions will rely more on self-dec- to incompetent fiscal management and
ing connectivity, to convert the villages laration. We will also introduce anti- a disdain for fiscal prudence. He said
into Digital Villages,” said Shri Piyush camcording provisions in the Cinemat- sarcastically that out of nowhere, the
Goyal. “More than 3 lakh Common Ser- ograph Act to control the menace of government has remembered the cows
vice Centres (CSCs) employing about 12 piracy,” he said. and announced a Scheme for their wel-
lakh people, are digitally delivering sev- fare and provided a grand sum of 750
eral services to the citizens,” he added. Budget reaction crore. It has announced the setting up
The finance minister said mobile Former minister P.Chidambaram of a new Department of Fisheries. It has
tariff in India is now possibly the low- said that his “one line comment on announced a new contributory pension
est in the world, catapulting India as the Budget is that it was not a Vote on scheme for 10 crore unorganized work-
the world leader in the consumption of Account but an Account for Votes”. Giv- ers that promises a pension of 3000
mobile data. “Monthly consumption of per month on their attaining the age
mobile data increased by over 50 times of 60 years and allotted a paltry sum of
in the last five years. The cost of data To address the 500 crore. The question is, “if these
and voice calls in India is now possibly were important and necessary inter-
the lowest in the world.” distress in the farm ventions, what was the government
Goyal said that the ‘Make in In- doing for five years?”
dia’ programme has seen the country sector, the govt will The government’s desperation is
emerging as the new destination for provide 6,000 per proved by its announcement of the
mobile phone manufacturing indus- Farmers’ Income Support Scheme to
try. “Today, under Make in India, mobile year to each farmer provide a measly sum 6000 per year
and parts manufacturing companies in three instalments to every small/medium farmer. The Fis-
have increased from 2 to more than cal Deficit numbers are telling. By reck-
268 providing huge job opportunities,” under a scheme lessly breaching fiscal discipline, the
he added. The Finance Minister termed to be fully funded government will fund the Scheme this
the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) year entirely out of borrowed money of
and Direct Benefit Transfer as game by the Centre 20,000 crore. Next year too, the
changers. scheme will be funded entirely out of
“Bank nationalisation was first done borrowed money of 75,000 crore. The
50 years ago, but a large part of the ing principal party Congress’s reaction former finance minister said, “While
country was still left out of the econom- to Budget, Chidambaram said that the I welcome the support to farmers, I
ic mainstream with no access to formal Interim Finance Minister tested our ask what about the non-farmer poor?
banking. In the last five years, nearly patience by the longest Interim Budget What about the urban poor?” The new
34 crore Jan Dhan bank accounts were Speech in recent memory. It was not scheme is intended to help the farmer.
opened,” said Piyush Goyal. The finance an Interim Budget. It was a full-fledged He said that he would like to ask how
minister said Aadhaar has ensured bet- Budget accompanied by an election the government will reach the money
ter targeted subsidies. “Aadhaar is now campaign speech. By doing so, the gov- to the tenant-farmer and farm labourer
near universally implemented. This ernment has trampled on time-hon- who actually tills the land.
has helped ensure the poor and middle oured conventions. He said that the direct tax conces-
class receive the benefits of the govern- The big takeaway is that the present sions were beyond the authority of the
ment schemes directly in their bank government has further weakened fis- government that will lay down office in
accounts by eliminating middlemen,” cal stability. For the second year in suc- 100 days. They seem to have been added
he said. cession the government has missed at the last hour after the Budget num-
Recognising India’s Entertainment the Fiscal Deficit target. The revised bers were finalised. We will study them
Industry as a major job sector, the estimate shows a slippage from 3.3 per carefully in order to find out if they
Finance Minister declared extension of cent to 3.4 per cent. Worse, for 2019-20 are in accord with the projections of
single window clearance for film shoot too, the government has proposed an revenue from income tax.
to Indian filmmakers. “Single window FD of 3.4 per cent. The government has
clearance for ease of shooting films, thrown the FRBM Act out of the win- letters@tehelka.com

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