FEBRUARY 28, 2011

A Budget Wish

By Sunil Achutan

A budget (from old French bougette, purse) is a plan for saving and spending. A budget is an organizational plan stated in monetary terms. In the jargon spoken by economists, the purpose of budgeting is to:

++ Provide a forecast of revenues and expenditures i.e. construct a model of how our business might perform financially speaking if certain strategies, events and plans are carried out.

++ Enable the actual financial operation of the business to be measured against the forecast.

What is etched in my memory about the Union Budget is the Finance Minister proudly showing the ‘glossy brown briefcase' to the media before entering the Parliament. I was told that that small brief case contains the fate of millions of Indians and is a document so secretive that those who prepared it and the place where it was printed is out of bounds for the public for months together. In fact, the babus associated with the Budgetary work are made to sever their ties with the outside world and even with their near and dear ones. Something like bonded slaves (slavery is too nauseating a word and I am sorry to have used it!) but no one complains for he is going to be a part of history. The land line telephones are all disconnected (now with mobile phones around, jammers may have been installed) so that nothing about the Budget is leaked to the outside world. The babus entering the various rooms in the North Block (probably the Block is in the Northernly direction, hence the name) are screened, frisked so that they do not carry any chits about the sensitive decisions being taken – I used to carry handwritten chits in my socks during exams and was never caught copying, fortunately!

Those days, there were only a couple of ‘pink' newspapers on the scene and the affluent made it a point to carry them neatly folded in their hands (although they had a briefcase where they could put it into) and sit in a relaxed pose in the first class compartment. I was in the college then and could not understand the ‘features' of this pink newspaper except knowing that it contained lot many pages of stock quotes. What I learnt later was that carrying a ‘pink' newspaper is a status symbol and if you do not have one under your arms, you belong to the under privileged tribe! In fact, those days, you had to tell your newspaper vendor in advance about wanting a copy of the news paper on the post budget day – he too would keep one but for a premium!

Television channels were not many those days and fortunately no debates or discussions or chatter took place on the Budget day. No noodle strap Ms. Bedi's or Mr. Aiyar's to explain to the viewers what the budget is all about – those fiscal deficit figures, GDP, inflation figures, IT exemption limits, Customs and excise duty rates, were all to me, uninteresting and a big bore. I would still prefer to know the figures of the ilk of Ms. Bedi and others which I can memorize at length and understand the implications if there is a drop or a gain, here and there!

In the first year of joining the department, and which was the year when liberalisation set in, I was at a loss to know what this Budget exercise was. I too was not that enthusiastic in knowing it anyway. My boss explained the importance of being good to an assessee on the Budget day and the days preceding and succeeding them, for those were money spinning and spirited days! Wallace Flour Mills and Vazir Sultan were raging hits and no one could afford to miss them.

But I was worried about the fact that I was entrusted to get a copy of the Budget bulletin and the Explanatory notes from the Headquarters by greasing the palms of the sepoys in the Technical section – and which I was novice at. You will learn over the years, said my boss and I had to spend a handsome amount in this learning process.

Websites were not around those days and it was only the R.K.Jain Tariff and the Central Excise Manual that was the flavour of the season. ExCus too was unborn!

Everything has changed since then. The euphoria surrounding the Budget is passe. There is nothing left that one does not know or can predict beforehand. Yet, there is so much commercialization in marketing this annual jamboree that whether you like it or not you are drawn into the vortex of this phenomenon what with the newspapers and news channels competing amongst themselves as to which of them would carry minute by minute and in-depth analysis of the Budget as it unfolds. The television advertisement rates for a 30 second capsule on this day can put prime time soaps to shame!

Even Taxindiaonline would be carrying its analyses with lighting speed and making the Budget palatable and understandable to lesser mortals like me.

I, however, have always harboured a secret wish – that is that the Finance Minister either loses his 'little brown briefcase' or to his horror discovers that the ‘briefcase' that he is carrying contains his grandchild's school notes.

At least, we would be spared of this Budget ritual or for that matter the quotes by Thiruvalluvar or Kautilya or some shayaris which in any case are meant for reading at leisure.

(The views expressed are strictly personal.)