Chief Minister Pramod Sawant turned Santa belting out sops and doling out crores in a budget presentation that is mainly aimed to heal the pain in sectors and give the government much-needed relief as it braces for assembly elections 2022. In a 68-page budget, the CM gave a sugar pill to the urban and rural sections, the middle class, the working class, farmers and every possible segment. The question is: do these numbers add up? Can the CM explain how he is going to mop up additional revenue, apart from the direct revenue and the central share of taxes?
Proposals like state-of-the-art multi-storeyed administrative complex at Patto-Panaji at a cost of Rs 250 crore, a Rs 100 crore provision under the MLA-Local Area Development Scheme, and the crores that are set aside for ambitious developmental plans appear completely out of place. This is nothing short of insurance for the BJP-led government in the run-up to elections because the sops are overwhelming and have come at a time when the State is on a fiscal borrowing spree and moving towards a debt trap. Instead of shifting the blame on past government failures for the financial crisis, and taking pride in maintaining the threshold, the government should be talking austerity seriously. That is when a surplus budget would make sense.
Budgets are known to be statistical illusions, mostly deceptive with fudged figures that are misleading with a clear objective to win over the populace, and this one is no different. This is why probably, all the legislators in the hallowed precincts of the Legislative Assembly, including the Speaker didn't feel the urgency to proceed with the budget presentation. Around close to 4 hours were spent in obituary references and more significantly the congratulatory of Pratapsingh Rane on his 50 years as MLA. The budget presentation which was originally scheduled at 2.30 pm could only begin at 6.30 pm.
The eagerness to sing praises of Sr Rane was so dominant that at one point Sudin Dhavalikar insisted that he needs to talk ahead of the CM. Each MLA, across party hues, took a walk down memory lane and took time to narrate their association with the senior leader while heaping lavish praise on him. The irony is, members continued to raise a toast despite Sr Rane standing up to request legislators to get on with the business of the House. In a bizarre twist, the budget was momentarily forgotten.
Legislators are well aware that the 13-day Legislative Assembly session provides no luxury of time with the kind of serious business that is lined up. If we may recount, earlier in the day members of the Opposition disrupted proceedings demanding a half-hour discussion on the South Western Railway double-tracking project. There are issues at hand and there are hundreds of questions and debates that are lined-up needing the serious attention of legislators. Such a colossal wastage of business time only reflects the casual attitude with which legislators are approaching the session.
