In a democratic country people are supreme and they should take part or intervene in any activity, including the Budget. Right from the formulation of the budget, enactment, implementation and audit, we the people as a civil society should intervene. The budget can also be used as a tool to assess the accountability of the government.” This statement was made by Jawed Alam Khan, senior research officer at Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), at a public meet organised on the Budget: An Overview by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind at its headquarters on 4 February.
Alam further simplified the budget cycle from formulation to audit in a broader perspective while reminding the audience of the role required to be played by the people as a monitoring body and to make the government accountable. According to him the ultimate objective of the budget is to fulfil the regional developmental gaps and the developmental gaps within social groups and also to give direction to set the political agenda for the coming days.
He further said our economy is mostly private and if we take the GDP then the government spending is hardly 30 per cent and the rest is private spending. And under global slowdown even private investment is also not taking place which should be a major cause of concern.
Dr. Waquar Anwar, Secretary Board of Islamic Publications and Finance Advisor of JIH, termed the budget as historic in a sense because of some changes that ware never made before like the merging of the rail budget, budget timing, ending the difference of the plan and non-plan and mention of political fund transparency.
He further said that it was an election budget and therefore no risk was taken. In the aftermath of demonetisation people were expecting some good measure. But effort has been made by the government to make people feel that things will improve even if it does not take place. We have seen the pain and suffering of the people and there was no justification for that. It is only backed by slogan like a right cause never fails. They claim that things will improve but nobody has any idea how it will improve.
According to him, in this budget one good sense that has prevailed unlike earlier days that the NREGA scheme which was a scheme of UPA has not only been allowed to continue but also its allocation has been increased.
Dr. Anwar claimed that the labour law which has been changed is claimed to be beneficial and may appear to be good on the face value but it is most likely to end the support base of the labour force. One remarkable initiative has been taken that the post offices will be engaged to take care of the services of passport; this in the sense to utilise our manpower in a better way is a welcome idea.