Interim Budget 2019: Juggling populism with pragmatism

The Budget helps consumption over investment with a fiscal stimulus of around Rs 1 trillion to the section of population whose propensity to consume is very high

The challenge in any election year Budget before every finance minister is how to give sops to the electorate without straining the fiscal deficit. In that light, the finance minister has been able to balance populism with pragmatism. Let’s first look at the key constituents the finance minister has given sops to followed by whether 

he has achieved the fiscal consolidation objective.

The first constituent the Budget addressed was the rural poor, given the distress in the agriculture sector. With the buzz of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) scheme being loud before the Budget, the actual amount of Rs 75,000 crore