 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. The finance minister, Piyush Goyal, has just presented the union budget for the year 2019-20. Now this budget comes at a very important time for this government. On the one hand, the agrarian crisis has seen hundreds and thousands of farmers take to the streets in protest. Unemployment is at record high levels. And most importantly, in just over two months, the general election that will determine the future of Marinarendra Modi is going to be held. And the government is very clearly conscious of this in this budget. To talk more about this, we have with us senior journalist, Paranjay Guhatakul. Hello Paranjay. Hello Prashant. Before you ask me the first question, you described Mr. Piyush Goyal as the finance minister. Maybe you should be describing him as an acting finance minister or an interim finance minister. You described this as a budget for 2019-20. You should ideally describe it as an interim budget and best, or perhaps a vote on account. Though, of course, this government is making every effort to pretend that this is a full-fledged budget. So to start with the most topical issue of employment. So the last couple of days, I've seen the controversy over the NSSO, the leaked NSSO report. And today, Piyush Goyal's speech was full of references to employment at the strangest of places. So do you see this interim budget as actually having done anything about the issue of employment at all? Well, this budget claims it's going to do something for small farmers, for the lower middle classes. It claims it's doing quite a bit for the underprivileged sections of the country. But what the, I mean, the government's silence is deafening when it comes to specific, even, what should I say, token measures. For those who are unemployed. As you rightly pointed out, the leaked report of the National Sample Survey Organization, which was leaked to business standard newspaper, it's essentially what they call a periodic labour force survey. It indicates that in 2017-18, unemployment in India was its highest in the last 45 years, in at 6.1%. And what is more, and is of particular consternation, is that the joblessness among rural youth in the age group 15 to 29 has more than trembled from 5% to 17.4% in the period between 2011-12 and 2017-18. You're right. What Mr. Pugh Goyal kept saying was that, you know, if the economy is growing, if the economy is doing so well, how can you say no jobs are not being created? Even highways can create jobs as well. And if you recall, when the Niti Ayog, chief executive officer, Amitabh Kant, was asked, how do you reconcile the fact that, you know, the report shows higher unemployment in New York City. You're saying the economy is growing very well. And he actually used the examples of Ola and Uber to indicate that actually jobs are growing. And he was actually seeking to refute the statistics put out by the Labour Bureau. But what the National Sample Survey Organization does is actually speak to people and ask them over the last week how many days they've been unemployed, and so on and so forth. And what is interesting is that all this has happened in the wake of the quote-unquote autonomous body called the National Statistical Commission. It's two independent members putting in their papers. And what was also very, very unusual is that the head of the Niti Ayog, Dr. Rajiv Kumar, was clearly flustered. When he sought to say, you know, the report that's been leaked to business standards, it's not the final report. When people say, what final report, who's going to finalize the report, who gets approval? First he said, no, no. Then he said, perhaps the cabinet has to approve it. The fact is, these reports are never, ever approved by the cabinet. It has never happened before. So clearly, the government is not just on the back foot. It really doesn't, even in terms of optics, you can argue what they've given to farmers is cosmetic at best and insult at worst. The same thing for the lower middle classes that they haven't even tried to do even a little bit for unemployed young people in the country. And it's interesting you mentioned the farmers because there was a lot of buzz about major schemes that would be targeted at the agrarian sector, especially after the recent state election results. But the final measure that came out, 6,000 rupees per year, that's just 500 rupees per month, like you said, is extremely paltry. And there seems to be no, say, sustainable projects or say anything in the long run for the sector at all. So there's no end to the crisis as far as the budget is concerned. If you break it down, what does it work out to? 500 rupees per month. Assume a farmer's household has five members. What does that work out to? 3.3 rupees per person per day. Look, the scheme announced by the government of Telangana, the raiyuta bandhu, gives 4,000 per acre per crop season. The scheme that has been announced by the government of Orissa, which is the Kaliya scheme, it is a far better scheme. And not only that, this scheme is only for small farmers, farmers with a land holding of less than two acres. Nothing mentioned about landless farmers, nothing mentioned about farm laborers. At least the Orissa government scheme is meant for not just owners of land, even if they're small land holders, but also those who work on the land, including landless laborers. And even the various insurance schemes and all that are being planned basically seem to be end up benefiting only the insurance companies rather than the farmers. That's very, very clear. I mean, that's so far the insurance schemes that have been announced have really benefited the insurance companies and that too, private insurance companies. And Sainath described this as a scam which is bigger than Raphael. But the point is, whatever you put out on paper, whatever you show, you try and convince people that look, this is all the things that we are doing. But actually, not only are you not doing anything, you're ending up perverting the scheme and enabling a privileged few companies to gain. Right. And let's look at the other main target audience of the government. There was a lot of buzz even before, say, the budget was presented about how the middle class would be one of the primary beneficiaries. And of course, the tax rebate was announced, the 5 lakh tax rebate. And there's been a lot of celebration online also. But do you really think that this budget actually has delivered for the middle class per se? And if you recall, after Mr. Piyush Goyal made this announcement, there was much humping of desks and very eerie, moody, moody slogans. Yes, you could hear nothing but moody, moody, almost as if you were in an election rally, which is really what this speech is all about, in the house, in the lower house of parliament. Let's quickly look at this scheme. It is aimed only at lower middle classes. Fine. Secondly, it's a scheme that's just been announced. So nothing is going to happen until you have a new government, whatever be the color and the complexion of that new government, which will come into place, we are expecting, if it's ads per schedule, towards the end of May. And then we'll have another budget being presented by the new government, and that budget will decide whether this scheme will continue or not. Next point, why is it only useful for lower middle classes and who actually the maximum gain that their taxpayer could gain would be about 12,500 rupees per annum, right? So you're really looking at less than 2,000 rupees, well under 2,000, a little more than 1,000 rupees per month. Now, if your monthly accessible income is above 42,500, that is, if your annual accessible income is over 5 lakh rupees, even after you factor in the standard deduction changes that have been proposed, which will save you 500 rupees in tax, that you're not going to gain anything. So it's only meant for that section of taxpayers who are the lower middle class. And let me here point out what is a very, very obvious contradiction which persists. We are in a strange situation where you're being taxed. Who's supposed to be taxed? Personal income tax is because you're well-to-do. You're supposed to be rich. But you have a quota for government jobs and admissions to all educational institutions. If you are supposed to be, you qualify as a poor. If your annual accessible income is 8 lakh rupees. So it's amazing that then you become under the EWS, so the economically weaker section, but the income tax department has a different point of view. This is an amazing contradiction. You're being taxed because you're rich, but you'll get a quota because you're supposed to be poor. Exactly. And even the quota discussion that took place, there was a reference to the increase in seats, of course, but really no discussion on how this would be actually executed in terms of budget investments, too, because this calls for a huge amount. You know the short point is this government has gets to hoots about tradition, norms, propriety. And we really, I mean, this was clear. One is tempted to quote the former chief economic advisor, Mr. Nitin Desai, who described it as Pradhan Manthri Vachau Yojana, that this is really an attempt, a last-ditch attempt, a few months before the general elections to save, or to bolster the image of the prime minister after all his false promises have been called out over the last several years. And let's look at the principle as to why an outgoing government is not supposed to present a full-fledged budget, but an interim budget, is essentially to keep the wheels of the government going till a new government is placed. So if your financial year ends the last day of March, then in April, May, and let it continue, what is the rationale that the outgoing government should not and must not commit its successor government into a set of policies, a set of commitments on expenditure and so on and so forth. Now, it doesn't matter whether it's the same set of people who become the new set of rulers, but the point is, the lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha has to pass the budget. It is a prerogative of the new Lok Sabha to decide what kind of tax rates, what kind of policies, what kind of expenditure is happening. So this government really gives a damn about conventions, traditions, norms, propriety. I mean, you can argue, what was this great daring hurry to make all these announcements? The income tax, the classic case for the low-middle class, nothing's going to happen. Even if you assume that the next government passes everything that you propose now, even if you assume that, nobody's going to gain. So at the end of the day, you're seeking to tie up a successor government, irrespective of its color and complexion. In the process, you give a damn about norms, about propriety, about conventions, about traditions. So it's very clear what this budget is made for and why it has been presented, if you want to call it a budget in the first place. Also, if you look at the style of the presentation itself, so much of time was dedicated to actually listing out the schemes over the past five years, it's the work that has happened. So there's actually much less focus on, say, the future or even some more detail on some of the plans, as much as it is an extended election campaign. And it's election advertisement for the Modi government. We are the biggest, we are the best, we've done this, we've done that. So that was all, this was all about a whole lot of grandstanding. Thank you, Paranjaya. Thank you, Prashant. That's all we have time for today. Keep watching NewsClick.