Budget more reactive than proactive

By SAI SNEHA PS

HYDERABAD: Anita Boddupally is a 39-year-old woman who graduated from Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University and did her Masters in transport planning from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.

Anita had an interest in economics but unfortunately couldn’t study that as a subject. She always follows the Budget and hence followed the 2021 union budget which was presented on February 1 by Financial Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Anita said, “The following budget is important as it allows an individual to create a spending plan for their money, not only that budget or spending plan will help people to come out of debt or help them to work their way out of debt.” When asked about her opinion if this year's budget was more reactive than proactive, she said “Yes, the budget is reactive than proactive because COVID-19 hit the economy hard and India is still under recession so there is no way the budget is proactive as it requires individual to take early steps to manage money wisely, but unfortunately people still are facing financial problems, but it will soon get over and everything will be back to normal.”

She mentioned that this year's budget focused a lot on FDI (foreign direct investment).

She appreciated the government as she felt that in a growing and developing country like India, FDI is particularly important to increase job opportunities and to control inflation.

She felt this will also help the local private insurers to grow fast and expand their presence in India, which has one of the lowest insurance penetration levels globally. The past year tested India on many fronts.

Even as Pandemic-induced lockdown ravaged the economy. Many lost their jobs and had to leave the cities they began to call home. A question was asked to her if she had a chance to change the 2021 budget as a citizen of India what would she change.

“Though the recovery is still fragile and uneven, and fiscal interventions are still very essential, the State Government Budgets may matter more, as they together spend 70 percent and 90 percent more than Centre, I would ask the Centre to recheck where the money is going.

“The Budget has two distinct parts: Financial accounting and Budget speech. “The latter, by laying out the medium-term road map, can significantly affect “animal spirits” and forward growth. “I would like to change these things if I had a chance to make changes in the Union Budget,” she said.

The story first appeared in The Times of Bennett, the lab newspaper produced by the first semester students of The Times School of Media.