Budget of India

Understanding the Budget process

The budget is prepared by the Finance Minister with the assistance of number of advisors and bureaucrats. The Finance Minister seeks the view of the industry captains and economists prior to preparation. Various accounting and finance related organisations send in their opinions and suggestions .The budgeting exercise in India remains mainly the domain of bureaucrats to participate and influence the outcomes. Normally, the budget-making process starts in the third quarter of the financial year.

The budget has four stages viz.,

(1) Estimates of expenditures and revenues,

(2) First estimate of deficit,

(3) Narrowing of deficit and

(4) Presentation and approval of budget.

Stage 1: Estimates of expenditures and revenues Part A: Estimates of Expenditure The process begins with various ministries providing initial estimates of plan and non-plan expenditures. The ministries discuss the plan expenditures with the Planning Commission. The Planning commission allocates resources for continuing plan programmes and decides on the new programmes that can be undertaken on the basis of a tentative estimate or resources available, that is provided to it by the finance ministry. The financial advisors of the ministries prepare the non-plan expenditures. The expenditure secretary consolidates them and after intensive discussion with financial advisors, budget estimates are set for the ensuing fiscal year. The majority of the non-plan expenditure is accounted for by interest payments, subsidies (mainly on food and fertilisers) and wage payments to employees. Part B: Estimates of Revenue

Apart from estimating the expenditure, an assessment of expected revenues likely to flow into the government treasury has to done as a concurrent exercise. Revenue receipts are of two types - Capital and current receipts. 2. Capital receipts include repayment of loans given by the government, receipts from divestment of public-sector equity and borrowings - both domestic and external. Current receipts include mainly, tax revenues, receipts by way of dividends from public-sector units and interest payments on loans given out by the central government. The amounts to be received by way of tax revenues is estimated on the basis of existing rates of taxation and taking into consideration the likely growth and inflation rate over the ensuing fiscal year. On the capital receipts side, targeted amounts to be realised through divestment of public sector equity and amounts to be realised by way of repayments of loans is made. All the estimates are provided to the revenue secretary.

STAGE 2: First estimates of deficit After the estimates of revenue and expenditure are made, they are matched together. This provides the first estimate of expected shortfall in revenue to meet projected expenditure. The government then, in consultation with the chief economic advisor, decides on the optimum level of borrowings to meet this deficit. The figure of external borrowings is known as much of the external borrowing by the government consists of bilateral and multilateral assistance which is known by the time budget exercises are undertaken. The level of domestic borrowing depends partly on the desired level of fiscal deficit that the government targets for itself. A part of the revenue gap is left unfilled to be met through the issue of ad hoc treasury bills.

STAGE 3: Narrowing of the deficit

After the targets for the fiscal deficits and the overall budget deficit is decided, any remaining shortfall is filled through a revision in tax rates if feasible , keeping in mind the fiscal incentive structure the government wishes to put in place to stimulate the growth in different sectors. Following the initial plans, if any changes need to be made adjustments are made to the expenditure; usually the plan expenditure has to be modified. The non plan expenditure comprises of interest payments, subsidies and administrative expenditure. Due to the political sensitivities involved in reducing subsidies, non-plan expenditure of the government is inflexible about changing it and it

3 is the plan expenditures which get the axe after pre-emption have already been made for non-plan expenditure.

STAGE 4: The Budget

The presentation of the Budget for the ensuing fiscal year (beginning April 1) is usually done on the last working day of February. The Indian constitution has made the Parliament supreme in financial matters. The Union government, under Article 112 of the constitution, is required to lay an annual financial statement of estimated receipts and expenditure before both Houses of Parliament. It can levy taxes or disburse funds only on approval in both houses of Parliament. However, the proposal for taxation or expenditure has to be initiated within the Council of Ministers--specifically by the Minister of Finance. The Finance Minister presents before the Parliament, a financial statement detailing the estimated receipts and expenditures of the central government for the forthcoming fiscal year and a review of the current fiscal year. Under Article 114 of the Constitution, the government can withdraw money from the Consolidated Fund of India only on approval from Parliament and so it has to get the Appropriation Bills approved by Parliament. This authorises the executive to spend money. Article 265 of the Constitution prohibits the government from collecting any taxes without the authority of law. Therefore, the government comes up with the Finance Bill. The Bill may levy new taxes, modify the existing tax structure or continue the existing tax structure beyond the period approved by Parliament earlier. The bills are forwarded to the Rajya Sabha for comment. The Lok Sabha, however, is not obligated to accept the comments and the Rajya Sabha cannot delay passage of these bills. The bills become law when signed by the President. The Lok Sabha cannot increase the request for funds submitted by the executive, nor can it authorize new expenditures.

The proposals in the budget come into force on April 1. Between the presentation and effective date there is a gap of 1 month during which the Lok Sabha can review and modify the government's budget proposals. This does not happen most of the time and the Parliamentary scrutiny of proposals and the passage of the budget gets completed

In May, well after the commencement of the new fiscal year. Since the proposed budget has to be effective from April 1, the government usually seeks an interim approval to meet emergent expenditures that have to be incurred pending the approval of the budget. This is called the vote-on-account and the sanctions given by the passage of the vote-on-account get automatically overridden once the Budget is approved by Parliament. Other budgets The Indian Railways, the largest public-sector enterprise, and the Department of Posts and Telegraph have their own budgets, funds, and accounts. The appropriations and disbursements under their budgets are subject to the same form of parliamentary and audit control as other government revenues and expenditures. Dividends accrue to the central government, and deficits are subsidized by it like other government enterprises. State Budget Each state government has its own budget, prepared by the state's minister of finance in consultation with appropriate officials of the central government. Primary control over state finances rests with the state legislature. However, State finances are which latter reviews the state government accounts annually and reports the findings to the state governor for submission to the state's legislature. Because of its greater revenue sources, the central government shares its revenue received from personal income taxes and certain excise taxes with the states. It also collects other minor taxes, the total proceeds of which are transferred to the states. The division of the shared taxes is determined by financial commissions established by the president, usually at five-year intervals. The central government also provides the states with grants to meet their commitments. Budget documents

The Union Budget comprises various documents. The first one is the speech of the Finance Ministry, which he reads in the Lok Sabha. The Budget speech provides the direction in which the government wishes to move in the coming financial year, the growth targets and the major thrust areas. The Finance Minister spells the broad tax policy measures in his speech. The speech lists the problems being faced by the country on the economic front and indicates the government’s response to them. The speech also summaries the various expenditure and tax proposals The other important documents are:

1. Key to Budget

This document provides an understanding of the budget documents

2. Budget Highlights

This statement gives the key features of the budget

3. Annual Financial Statement

Annual Financial statement is the main document. This statement shows the receipts and payments of the government under the three parts in which government accounts are kept.

(1) Consolidated Fund- Resources raised by the government through taxes, loans, dividends from PSUs and banks form the Consolidated Fund.

(2) Contingency Fund- It is imprest at the government’s disposal to meet unforeseen expenditure.

(3) Public Account- The amount collected by the government acting as a banker .e.g. PF, small savings collections.

4. Finance Bill

The Finance Bill includes the tax proposals and the tax rates .It provided the fine print of the budget

5. Memorandum

Explanatory Memorandum provides a quick overview of tax provisions contained in the Finance Bill.

6. Budget at a Glance

Budget at a Glance provides an overview of government finances. It’s more like a balance-sheet of the Union. It gives a broad break up of tax revenues, other receipts, expenditure-plan and no-plan allocation of outlays by ministries and resource transfer to states and Union Territories. Progress towards implementation of Budget proposals announced in previous years are listed in the Implementation Budget

7. Expenditure Budget Expenditure Budget Volume I and II explains the provisions made. While Volume I explains the provisions ministry-wise, Volume II analyses expenditure trend over the years with regard to Plan and non-Plan expenditure. 8. Receipts Budget Receipts Budget gives details of revenue receipts and capital receipts and explains the estimates so as to make them intelligible to an ordinary citizen. It also include trend of receipts over the years and details of external assistance

9. Customs & Central Excise

This document gives the customs and excise notifications

10. Implementation of Budget Announcements

This contains status of implementation on initiatives announced by the Finance Minister in the Budget Speech

11. The Macro Economic Framework Statement

The Macro-economic Framework Statement, as enjoined by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003 (FRBM Act), contains an assessment of the growth prospects of the economy with specific underlying assumptions. It contains assessment regarding the GDP growth rate, fiscal balance of the Central Government and the external sector balance of the economy 12. The Medium Term Fiscal Policy Statement The Medium-term Fiscal Policy Statement, as enjoined by the FRBM Act sets forth a three year rolling target for specific fiscal indicators along with underlying assumptions. The statement includes an assessment of sustainability relating to balance between revenue receipts and revenue expenditure and the use of capital receipts including market borrowings for generation of productive assets.

Jammu & Kashmir

Jammu & Kashmir in the year 1947 was an independent country for all practical purposes. The Maharaja who ruled the State had signed agreements with both Pakistan and India to remain neutral and not be part of either country. India honoured that agreement but Pakistan did not. Pakistani raiders and soldiers attacked the state in 1947 forcing the Maharaja to flee to India. The Maharaja asked India to help his people who were being killed and looted by the Pakistani raiders. He also agreed to make Jammu &; Kashmir part of India. The Indian ruler at that time was Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He accepted Jammu &; Kashmir's accession to India and agreed to rescue his people from the Pakistani attackers. Indian troops were flown into the Kashmir Valley and they managed to drive away most of the Pakistani raiders from the state. But a large area of the state remained under the control of Pakistani soldiers. These areas were difficult to reach because they were surrounded by tall mountain ranges. Also, India wanted to stop the fighting. The fighting ended with Pakistan retaining control of a large area of the state but India keeping a larger part.

The fighting ended in the beginning of 1949 because India did not want the war to drag on. India felt that other influential countries like the US and Britain would ask Pakistan to stop fighting and withdraw its soldiers from a State that had legally become part of India. India therefore went to the world body called the United Nations, or UN for short. India said that Pakistan had attacked a neutral State and that State had now become part of India. Therefore, Pakistan should withdraw its soldiers from the State. The United Nations agreed with the Indian demand and asked Pakistan to withdraw its forces from Jammu & Kashmir. It also told India to ask the people of Jammu & Kashmir whether they wanted to be part of India or part of Pakistan. This was because some people in the State wanted to join Pakistan while others wanted to stay with India. The Prime Minister of India agreed to ask the people what they wanted through a process known as a referendum or plebiscite. Pakistan did not agree and refused to vacate the areas of Jammu & Kashmir it had forcibly grabbed. Because of this a plebiscite could not be held. Powerful countries like the US and Britain did not force Pakistan to withdraw its troops from Kashmir. They simply termed the entire State as a ‘Disputed Territory.’

This was done essentially because both India and Pakistan claimed the state of Jammu & Kashmir. The big powers, like the US and Britain, did not want to take sides and might have felt that it would be best if the problem of the state could be settled between India and Pakistan. India wants to settle the problems once and for all. But Pakistan will only accept a solution under which it can keep the Kashmir Valley to itself. India cannot allow this. Therefore, the so-called "dispute" continues to this day.

Legally, Jammu & Kashmir is an integral and inseparable part of India. The British had ruled India as one undivided country made up of many provinces and princely states. When they left, India was partitioned into two separate countries. The new country, as mentioned earlier, was called Pakistan. The British as well as the leaders of both India and Pakistan had agreed to one basic principle - every inch of land must go either to India or to Pakistan. In other words, people living in India before the partition of 1947, had only two options: they could either join Pakistan or they could join India. They could not remain independent.
Jammu & Kashmir was actually an exception. The Maharaja of the State had wanted time to decide whether he should join Pakistan or join India. But the rulers of Pakistan did not want to give him the opportunity to decide and instead attacked his state, killing hundreds of people and causing extensive damage to property. The Pakistani action forced the Maharaja to join India.

It was absolutely legal. According to the agreement on which the partition of India was based, the rulers of princely states, like Jammu & Kashmir, had the absolute right to decide whether they wanted to join Pakistan or India. There was never any question of holding a referendum or a plebiscite (A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of direct democracy.) All the same, the then Prime Minister of India, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, agreed to hold a plebiscite because he was a democrat and wanted to find out what the people of the state of Jammu & Kashmir wanted.

The plebiscite was not held because Pakistan refused to vacate the large parts of Jammu & Kashmir that had been occupied by its soldiers. The plebiscite was meant for all the people of the state of Jammu & Kashmir and not just for those who lived in the Kashmir Valley. But the Pakistanis felt that the parts of the state they had captured was theirs and would not part with it. Pakistan defied the agreement reached by the world body called the United Nations and refused to vacate its troops. The powerful countries of the world did nothing to ensure that Pakistan honoured the UN Resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir. India could not therefore hold a plebiscite.

In 1947, when the Pakistanis attacked Jammu & Kashmir, the most popular leader of that state was a man named Sheikh Abdullah. He was a friend of the Indian Prime Minister, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru. Both men believed in secularism, which is a concept that allows people of all religions and creeds to live together. Pakistan, on the other hand, was created on the basis of religion. The leaders of Pakistan wanted a country where only Muslims would rule. Indian leaders, on the other hand, felt that anybody could rule as long as the people elected that person. Sheikh Abdullah preferred the idea of secularism. He therefore wanted Jammu & Kashmir to be part of India rather than part of Pakistan. At the same time, the Hindus who were a majority in the Jammu region, also did not want to join Pakistan. Nor did the Buddhists of Ladakh. Since all these groups wanted to be with India, there was no point in holding a referendum on the Indian side of Jammu & Kashmir. Also, in 1954, the people on the Indian side of Jammu & Kashmir elected a government of their own. This government made it clear that their state was part of India and not part of Pakistan. Officially speaking, they "ratified Jammu & Kashmir's accession to India". This meant that henceforth there could be no question of holding a plebiscite in the state of Jammu & Kashmir.

A plebiscite cannot be held today for two reasons. Firstly, Pakistan continues to illegally occupy a large chunk of Jammu & Kashmir and does not allow the people here any freedom of choice. In most parts of the Pakistani occupied part of Jammu & Kashmir, the local people have no democratic rights. They cannot elect a government and they cannot dare to even talk against Pakistan for fear of being killed. For all practical purposes, the territory and the people captured by Pakistan in 1947 have been incorporated into Pakistan. These people have always been ruled by Pakistan and have not been given the opportunity to learn what democracy is all about. Unless, Pakistan agrees to give them a chance to participate in a plebiscite, it will be of no use. Secondly, Jammu & Kashmir became a legal, integral and inseparable part of India many many years ago. Today, no Indian government can allow some people in Jammu & Kashmir to break away from India. The Indian government tolerates some people in Jammu & Kashmir who talk about separation from India but does not like them. In other countries, people who want to break apart a country by creating a separate independent country are called traitors. They are usually punished by hanging. India is a more tolerant country.

This is because a section of leaders belonging to the Kashmir Valley want to break away from India. Some of them want to form a separate country while others want to join Pakistan. Making such demands is against the law. The Indian government has been forced to arrest some of these leaders and put them in prison. Most of them have later been released. Some of them, however, decided to become terrorists and started to kill people in the Kashmir Valley and in other parts of the state. To protect the lives of people and to counter these terrorists, the Indian government posted soldiers in the Kashmir Valley. The terrorists then started killing these soldiers as well. The soldiers started fighting back and for all practical purposes, the Kashmir Valley became a battlefield. Indian soldiers have killed many terrorists but some remain to this day and continue to frighten the people of Jammu & Kashmir.

Pakistanis trained Kashmiri youth to fight, set off bombs and carry out assassinations. They also gave them money and weapons of all kinds. These Kashmiri youth went back to the Valley and started a reign of terror in 1989. They became known freedom fighters as first and then later as terrorists. Now most Kashmiri youths are disillusioned and have stopped fighting but are still called terrorists, when actually those fighting are mainly from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Pakistan and Afghanistan. These people are also looting Kashmiris and indulging in forced adulterous relations with many Kashmiri women.

Most Kashmiris are disillusioned with all the killing and fighting. They want peace. Elections were held in Kashmir and Dr. Farooq Abdullah, the leader of Jammu & Kashmir's main political party, the National Conference (NC), was elected Chief Minister. He is ruling the state today and has clearly said that Jammu & Kashmir cannot and will not be part of Pakistan. He has pledged full support to the Indian government to fight against the terrorists and the traitors who want to break away from India. There are other Kashmiri leaders, who wish to see the state return to normalcy and the people have a better life.

When Kashmiris began to grow disillusioned with the fighting, the Pakistanis realised that an opportunity to grab the Kashmir Valley was slipping out of their hands. They therefore trained people from Pakistan, Afghanistan and other places to fight in Kashmir. Most of these new fighters were mercenaries and were paid to fight in Kashmir. These mercenaries were also told that the Muslim faith was in danger and that they were fighting a Jihad or Holy War. They are also responsible for killing former Kashmiri terrorists who have stopped fighting. These foreign mercenaries have no love for the ordinary Kashmiri and have caused them a lot of harm, killing their men and raping their women. They are also responsible for the abduction of six foreign tourists in 1995. One of the tourists, who was an American, managed to escape while another, a Norwegian, was cruelly beheaded. The other four tourists were also killed in cold blood but their bodies were never found.

The people in other parts of the Indian side of Jammu & Kashmir are very alarmed with all the fighting in the Kashmir Valley. They are also afraid of the demands for separating Jammu & Kashmir from India. They want to be part of India and in recent years have been demanding that the state of Jammu & Kashmir be broken up and the other main regions, including Jammu & Ladakh, be put under direct rule of the Central Government in New Delhi. But the Indian government does not want Jammu & Kashmir to be broken up any further.

The Pakistani side of Jammu & Kashmir has been divided into two main parts. The largest part is called the Northern Areas. Here the people have no political or human rights and are ruled directly by Pakistan. But of late they have begun to rebel against Pakistan. The Pakistani Army has crushed these rebellions with brute force. The other part of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir is a tiny portion called Azad Jammu & Kashmir. Azad in the Urdu language means free. The people settled here are also not very happy with Pakistan but know that they cannot gain independence even though theirs is a supposedly a "free" country. Their leaders are supported by Pakistan and given lots of money. These leaders are comfortable with Pakistan and want to remain in Pakistan. Others do not want to stay in Pakistan but most do not dare protest for fear of being killed or imprisoned.