Breaking the traditional mould of the Bharatiya Janata Party's constituency among traders, Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh's Budget is regarded within the party as a determined attempt to extend the party's reach to disparate social groups, particularly farmers, industrialists and the salaried middle-class.
Though the hike in fertiliser prices has caused certain anxiety for the ruling coalition and is expected to be taken up with the party's top leadership shortly, the Budget is believed to have put the party in an election gear.
Just after the Budget, all top leaders of the party heaved a sign of relief and described the budget as "good politics, forget about economics this year". Within the party nobody talked about the growing "fiscal deficit," which may create problem due to populist schemes announced by him.
Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani was more forthright when he stated that the Opposition's description of the Budget as "populist and election year Budget" was nothing but acknowledgment of the fact that the Budget was a good document.
"I take it as a back-hand compliment," Advani said, adding the Budget was "exhaustive and well-focussed."
"The budget does seek to address concerns of the country with essential thrust towards promoting the country's future without being populist," he said. Apparently, Advani's reaction to the Budget indicated that top BJP leadership was very pleased over the manner in which the Budget was formulated.
Though Congress spokesman Jaipal Reddy described the Budget as "anti-people", there was clear indication that the Opposition had found little to attack the government. In fact, the finance minister had deftly used the recommendations of the Kelkar Committee to let the steam off on his tax proposals much before the Budget.
Though the Kelkar committee's recommendations caused a flutter among politicians over its proposal to tax the agriculture income, the document set the roadmap for the budgetary proposal.
On political front, the BJP has tactically appointed a committee under BJP general secretary Rajnath Singh to trigger off an intense political debate on the Kelkar committee's recommendation.
"Almost all recommendations of my committee have been accepted," an ebullient Singh said.
Sources in the BJP admit that Rajnath Singh held several rounds of consultations with the finance minister and his adviser Vijay Kelkar and finally endorsed the larger part of the Kelkar proposals.
In fact, the finance minister's decision to re-impose the dividend distribution tax and lower the tax rates for lower income group were some of the recommendations, which are considered politically conducive for the government.
Similarly, the finance minister's decision to evolve an assessee-friendly tax system, give relief to pharmaceutical, IT and Biotechnology and accord priority to the health will turn out to be not only good economics but also good politics.
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