We think imagination is the monopoly of poets and other artists, but our own Union Finance Minister seems to have a poetic imagination all of her own. Her budget speech has invited us, the people of India, to dream of a very desirable outcome … 25 years in the future! This time around, during her fourth annual budgetary exercise, she spent just 90 minutes on outlining her ‘vision’ for India (that is Bharat) – and without any references to poets ancient or modern as was her wont earlier. In plainspeak, what she was telling the common woman was to tighten her petticoat till the dawn of that much-desired Amrit Kaal – and to meanwhile forget about such small lifelines like a reduction in prices of essentials and a few tax exemptions.

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the country’s economy and the people very hard. Economic growth has slowed down substantially, millions have lost their jobs and countless families’ monthly budgets have gone for a toss. Unbearable medical costs, spiralling prices of essential commodities, closure of thousands of small and medium business establishments – this litany of woes has made the lives especially of poor, low-income and middleclass people miserable. But Ms Sitharaman in her wisdom has chosen to overlook these harsh (not to her, perhaps) realities and gazed at the far horizon of a ‘fabulous’ Amrit Kaal 25 years hence!

Not only is the economy in bad shape, its recovery too is beset with problems. No doubt, the budget focuses on the big picture like infrastructure and connectivity but on an equally generous times scale! The budget distinctly lacks growth-invigorating proposals. Its cheerleaders may call it both commonsensical in approach and ambitious in reach, but the fact is that it is not exactly bubbling with new ideas.

With the economy still in search of a durable momentum that could help its recovery from the last fiscal year’s record contraction, the Finance Minister has missed a plainly visible opportunity to address flagging consumer spending in the wake of the erosion in real incomes and savings through a combination of tax breaks for the middle class and cash handouts for the poor. And even as Ms Sitharaman acknowledges the role public capital expenditure could play in crowding-in private investment at a time when private investments seem to require that support and help pump-prime the economy, the budget outlay of Rs 7.50 lakh crore for the capital account marks just a 24.4 per cent increase from the revised estimates of Rs 6.03 lakh crore for the 2021-22 fiscal.

On the contrary, instead of coming to the aid of lower- and medium-income people, the Finance Minister has slashed the government spending on sectors like rural development and national rural employment guarantee schemes. Overall expenditure in the budget estimates for fiscal 2023 are in real terms just a little more than the revised estimates for fiscal 2021-22. What is worse, despite the ongoing Covid third wave, the budget has cut what it should have hiked – spending on health care!

With Ms Sitharaman’s worldview of laying the foundation of the country’s growth for the next 25 years by pump-priming the economy, her budget emphasises the ‘PM GatiShakti’ National Master Plan as a transformative approach to boost economic growth and sustainable development, driven by ‘seven engines’ — mass transport, waterways, railways, roads, airports, ports and logistics manufacture. But is this dream-like future progress (if it actually happens) to be achieved at the cost of the present? That’s the hard question the honourable lady (and her honourable mentor) should be asking themselves in their waking moments.