Opposition demands Budget 2017 be tabled after March 11

Yechury says 'early budget' will factor in GDP data only for two quarters and will mislead

Opposition parties have demanded that presentation of the General Budget be postponed to after March 11, the date of counting of votes for the five states going to the polls. They have slammed it as a short term political move with an eye on the assembly polls to enable the Narendra Modi government to announce sops before the elections while bypassing the Election Commission's (EC) model code of conduct.

The Election Commission on Wednesday announced poll dates for Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Polls in Goa and Punjab will be held in a single phase on February 4, while in Uttarakhand on February 15. Manipur will have a two-phase election with polling on March 4 and 8. Uttar Pradesh will have a seven phase polling from February 11 to March 8. The counting of votes is on Saturday, March 11. The process will be completed before Holi, which this year falls on March 13.

On Tuesday, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs decided to advance the first phase of the Budget session of Parliament from January 31 to February 9, instead of last week of February. The General Budget will be presented on February 1, instead of the usual last working day of February.

Opposition parties have asked the Election Commission (EC) and the President to reverse the decision. They have also pointed out that the Congress-led UPA governments had presented the General Budgets in 2007 and 2012 after the completion of the polls to these five states, that is in mid-March. They have questioned the ‘fairness’ of presenting the General Budget on February 1, when elections to Goa and Punjab are on February 4. The EC model code of conduct doesn’t cover the budget since it is a constitutional exercise.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) chief Sitaram Yechury said an ‘early budget’ was a bad idea considering that it would only take into account the actual gross domestic product (GDP) data for the first two-quarters (only till September 2016). “This is bound to present a misleading picture of India’s GDP growth rate which is bound to be revised heavily later on,” he said. This, Yechury said, will not only hurt the credibility of the government, and India, but also make people suffering hardships to lose faith in such numbers that “appear hyped and evidently rosier than the truth.”

An early budget will not cover the expected downward slide in economic indicators because of the Narendra Modi government’s note ban decision. Yechury pointed out that the Economic Survey will now cover only half the financial year 2016-17, while the full year will be covered by the mid-year review in July, well after the budget. He said such a budget making exercise, with partial data, is bound to lead to “looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnostic it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”

The Congress, Janata Dal (United), Samajwadi Party and others have written to the President. Swaraj Abhiyan’s Yogendra Yadav also questioned “fairness” of presenting a budget on February 1, days before Goa and Punjab go to polls on February 4.