It's Kautilya 4.0 in Union Budget speech

Kautilya, widely known as the pioneer of economics in India and author of Artha Shastra (rules of economics), was invoked for the fourth time in the country’s annual Union Budget speeches on Friday, including thrice by the incumbent Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Aside from his Budget speech on Friday last week, Mukherjee had quoted Kautilya in July 2009 and when he had read out the Budget proposals for the financial year 1984-85.

Kautilya, who was prime minister in the court of King Chandragupta Maurya, a contemporary to Alexander, in the fourth century BC, was mentioned in another Budget presented by Yashwant Sinha in 1999-2000, the then finance minister in the NDA government. Delivering his Budget speech for 2010-11, Mukherjee said, “While formulating them (tax proposals), I have been guided by the principles of sound tax administration as embodied in the words of Kautilya”.

He further quoted Kautilya: “Thus, a wise collector general shall conduct the work of revenue collection... In a manner that production and consumption should not be injuriously affected... Financial prosperity depends on public prosperity, abundance of harvest and prosperity of commerce, among other things.”

In his Budget speech for 2009-10 in July last year, Mukherjee had said the short-term fiscal stimulus had to be balanced against long-term prudence and fiscal sustainability objectives.