Favouring the upper class creates social anarchy

India’s Minister of Finance, Arun Jaitley, seemingly unveiled a budget with a protracted objective to propel investment in the country by encouraging the business community to speed up its economic growth.

The budget speech echoed the inherent objectives of Narendra Modi’s government to modify the Indian economy for a big push by wrestling with other major global players, a bait to lure Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). The budget has accommodated a reduction in corporate tax rate, which would further enrich the upper echelon of the second most populated country in the world where the majority of the population are still trailing to eke out. There is no tangible concession in the budget for an individual tax rate. The indirect tax baseline on goods and services have stretched out further, draining the hard earned income of people, leaving them in lurch with less of a disposable income. All these indicate that the budget has failed to translate ‘Inclusive Growth’, an agenda that was drummed up by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the election time to appeal to the voters. It proved to be a mere stunt. The composition of Indian demography is dominated by the middle and lower income group, which are also a huge potential consumer class for the goods and services that are produced by the corporate. The government shouldn’t overlook the fact that to host a healthy sustainable economy there needs to be a population with sufficient purchasing power, and the allocation of well balanced resources are a prerequisite to achieve this. Constant policy manoeuvring in favour of an affluent section will only increase capitalism in the country, which in the long run will create inequality and lead to social anarchy.

— The reader is an Indian chartered accountant based in Abu Dhabi