There is no reason for maintaining secrecy when preparing the Budget, former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said here on Tuesday suggesting that Finance Ministers can make budgetary proposals to Parliament to be discussed and finalised later.
“We have reached a stage in our economic development when we can match what happens in other developed countries where the Budget is discussed and then finalised,” he said while speaking at an event organised by the Merchant Chambers of Commerce.
Mr. Sinha said that even if the country got to know that the Budget proposed a Mudra (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) bank with Rs. 20,000 crore in the budget, no harm would have been done.
“There is nothing on the expenditure side which calls for secrecy,” he said. On the revenue side, there are direct tax proposals from which no advantage can be derived even if they are made public.
The BJP leader said that even on indirect taxes, such as customs and excise duty, there would be no major impact.
Mr. Sinha said it was he who in the late 1990s broke the tradition of presenting the Budget at 5 p.m.
On the fiscal front, he flagged the structural issues facing the economy such as how Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had extended the target of taking the fiscal deficit to three percent of the GDP from two to three years. Mr. Sinha expressed concern on the revenue deficit.
“The worrisome thing is not extension of fiscal deficit from two years to three years, but that even in 2017, the fiscal deficit, while it will remain at two percent, the revenue deficit will not be eliminated and it will be at two per cent,” Mr. Sinha said.
Describing this year Budget as “fairly comprehensive,” Mr. Sinha said the emphasis on infrastructure was its central point.
‘No advantage can be derived even if direct tax proposals are made public’
