Budget - The Great Indian Hope Trick

By Vijay Kumar

If you are solving a cross word puzzle and the question is this would help you when you are in great trouble. HOPE, DOPE, or ROPE. India is the land of rope tricks and nirvana and for most of us, the budget is the Great Indian Hope Trick. So much is going to be talked about and written about all that the FM is going to read from his budget today.

What is so important about the budget when customs and excise duties can be increased or decreased by the government whenever they want to and they have been doing it whenever they want to?

Has the budget lost its relevance? Is it serving only the media? May be the government can earn some pretty revenue by having some advertising slots for the budget. Even the FM can announce, " I will now take a short commercial break, but please don't go away; you may be taxed soon". Can government make some money by selling the rights for the FM's Budget telecast?

The whole of today you will find the "experts" in the field analayse the budget from all angles without getting into any specific issues. Inflation, balance of payments, foreign exchange reserves, GDP, deficit - all these issues will be discussed and dissected, but nobody will tell you what the budget is all about, but what the small print implies, what the notifications mean. And this is exactly what TIOL has for you. We will tell you what the budget really means, we will tell you what the great analysts fail to tell you. We will tell you what the small print in the budget means and for that small print, be with us for today and the next few days.