Expert Zone
Straight from the Specialists
Budget 2013: Time for a responsible budget
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author, and not necessarily of Thomson Reuters)
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has promised a “responsible” budget this time around. According to Webster’s dictionary, “responsibility” is associated with a legal or moral accountability, reliability, trustworthiness in relation with some burden.
What would this possibly mean for the budget’s key stakeholders — business, the middle class, investors and voters?
The UPA government has made welfare spending its primary electoral plank, which was activated a year before the financial crisis of 2008/09. Considering that election fever will take over by the middle of the year, let’s hope Budget 2013 will demonstrate responsibility when dealing with electoral interests.
