In a feel-good factor for the common citizens, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant indicated that his March budget will lower taxes and government fees on public services. Herein is a paradox. Can the government afford to offer sops and tax concessions and lose revenue given the difficult fiscal situation at hand? The amendment of the Goa Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act passed in the recently concluded Assembly session may give the government extra legroom to stretch its fiscal borrowing beyond the current limits, but by doing so, it's not going to improve the financial health of the State. On the contrary, Goa would gallop faster towards a debt trap.
In such crunch situations, there is a need to blend economics and electoral populism keeping the macro picture in mind. The grandness of the budget has to be sharply focused on financials with a clear roadmap to tackle the gripping problems of the State rather than creating a smokescreen to garner votes. There has to be clarity on how the government is going to mop-up revenue and stabilize the downward spiral of the economy.
Close on the heels of the CM announcing that employment opportunities will open up, several departments have announced vacancies, including Goa State Pollution Control Board and Goa Human Resource Development Corporation. But again, with civic elections around the corner and the Code of Conduct coming into force soon, the seriousness of these employment exercises remains a suspect. Let's not forget the job openings of the past which ended up making a mockery of job seekers.
While there is enormous desperation for government jobs, the ordeal that candidates were put through between 2017 and 2019 weighs heavily in the minds of everyone. Lest we forget, candidates had spent hours in the queue, some camping overnight on-site, and others even answering interviews, only to find the recruitment processes scrapped. Job seekers have been treated with disdain all this while even as unemployment was one of the serious issues grappling the State.
It is obvious that the government is trying to use every possible bait to hook the voter, and the flurry of public-oriented announcements in recent times is a testimony to that. The budget is expected to be in tune with BJP's social outreach strategy to reach out to people and contain the anger among sections of the electorate. The question is whether the government would succeed in tiding over the huge wave of resentment via these manoeuvres.
While sweeping statements have been made on additional expenditure, development, schemes and opening up job opportunities, literally nothing is being spoken on revenue generation, especially when the government is banking on tourism fortunes. It is to be seen how the CM makes a budgetary provision for the additional financial burden the new job openings will bring in. For now, it remains a mystery because the government is already on a borrowing spree to pay even the current salary bill.
