THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- February 2, 2018 - Topic 1

Promise and delivery: on Union Budget 2018

If the Union Budget is construed as an annual tug-of-war between populism and fiscal prudence, arguably it is the latter that prevailed in the past four budgets tabled by the NDA. However, populism seems to have gained an upper hand in Arun Jaitley’s latest effort. Despite exceptional buoyancy in direct tax revenues (18.7% growth in FY18) and record disinvestment proceeds (Rs.1 lakh crore), shortfalls in GST mop-ups and dividend receipts have forced the Finance Minister to ease off on fiscal consolidation as mandated by the FRBM Act. 

The Budget has reported a fiscal deficit of 3.5% (of GDP) for FY18 and pegged it at a high 3.3% for next year. The Economic Survey prepared the ground for a deviation, yet the actual numbers surprised the markets. Armed with a war chest of Rs.24.4 lakh crore in budgeted receipts for FY19, Mr. Jaitley has homed in unerringly on the root causes of distress — unremunerative farm incomes, unemployment, lack of social security nets and the squeeze on the middle-class taxpayer.

With this in mind, Mr. Jaitley has announced a laundry list of ameliorative measures. While his intent is clearly welfarist, resource constraints have forced him to rely significantly on extra-budgetary resources and external agencies to give life to many proposals. If they fail to materialise, it can lead to a gap between promise and delivery. Consider agriculture. After asserting that minimum support prices (MSPs) should cover all crops and assure farmers 1.5 times their production cost, food subsidy allocations for FY19 have been upped by a relatively modest ₹29,041 crore. A ‘fool-proof’ mechanism has been mooted to avoid market prices falling below MSPs, but it is left to the Niti Aayog to work out the modalities. Setting up farmers’ markets is similarly a great idea to free small farmers from the tyranny of Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs), but the project gets a mere Rs.2,000-crore allocation.

The ambitious rural package in this Budget brings in free gas connections to three crore new households, free electricity connections to four crore homes, two crore new toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission, higher micro-irrigation coverage, and so on. But of the massive outlay of Rs.14.34 lakh crore required to bankroll these grandiose plans, as much as Rs.11.98 lakh crore is expected to be met from extra-budgetary resources. A similar template has been used in social sector schemes. The National Health Protection Scheme, to provide a Rs.5 lakh health cover to 10 crore households, is a much-needed social security intervention to benefit poor households that rely overwhelmingly on private health care. But there is little clarity on modalities. The entire clutch of proposals on improving learning outcomes, providing universal health coverage and alleviating the lot of minorities and girl children is expected to be funded through a mere Rs.16,000-crore increase in allocations to Rs.1.38 lakh crore. Infrastructure appears to be one of the few sectors where the funding problem has been addressed, with PSUs bankrolling a significant proportion of the Rs.5.97-lakh crore outlay for FY19.

Vocabulary

Construe: interpret a word or action in a particular way.

Example: His words could hardly be construed as an apology

Synonyms: interpret, understand, read, see, take, take to mean

Prudence: the quality of being prudent; cautiousness.

Example: We need to exercise prudence in such important matters

Synonyms: wisdom, judgment, good judgment, common sense, sense

Antonyms: recklessness, rashness, imprudence

Prevail: prove more powerful than opposing forces; be victorious.

Example: It is hard for logic to prevail over emotion

Synonyms: win, win out/through, triumph, be victorious, carry the day

Antonyms: be defeated, come short, fail, fall short

Buoyancy: a high level of activity in an economy or stock market.

Example: There is renewed buoyancy in the demand for steel

Synonyms: impertinence, airiness, archness, perkiness

Consolidation: the action or process of integrating.

Example: Economic and political integration

Synonyms: integrating, consolidation, integration

Deviation: the action of departing from an established course or accepted standard.

Example: Deviation from a norm

Synonyms: divergence, digression, departure, difference, variation, variance

Laundry: clothes and linens that need to be washed or that have been newly washed.

Example: Piles of dirty laundry

Synonyms: washing, wash, dirty clothes

Ameliorate: make something bad or unsatisfactory better.

Example: The reform did much to ameliorate living standards

Synonyms: improve, make better, better, make improvements to, enhance

Antonyms: aggravate, blemish, corrupt, debase, depress

Constraint: a limitation or restriction.

Example: The availability of water is the main constraint on food production

Synonyms: restriction, limitation, curb, check, restraint, control

Antonyms: abandon, arrogance, assumption, assurance, boldness

Tyranny: cruel and oppressive government or rule.

Example: People who survive war and escape tyranny

Synonyms: despotism, absolute power, autocracy, dictatorship

Ambitious: having or showing a strong desire and determination to succeed.

Example: His mother was hard-working and ambitious for her four children

Synonyms: aspiring, determined, forceful, pushy, enterprising, motivated

Antonyms: shiftless, easy, unambitious, ambitionless

Clutch: grasp or seize something tightly or eagerly.

Example: He stood clutching a microphone

Synonyms: grip, grasp, clasp, cling to, hang on to, clench, hold

Antonyms: fail of, fall short of, give up, let go, lose, miss, release, restore

Outlay: an amount of money spent on something.

Example: Christmas cards account for only a small amount of our outlay .

Synonyms: expenditure, expenses, spending, cost, price, payment

Antonyms: gain, income, proceeds, product, profit, profits, receipt