Mr B: What brings you here, my friend? Today’s all business.

Mr P (leaning forward aggressively) : Are you kidding me? Have you seen how the Congress has taken down BJP in Rajasthan? Honestly, your budget is one damp, predictable squib. But what’s happened in Rajasthan is an incipient political earthquake. I need this story to be in the top drawer on Page One.

Mr B (uncomfortably) : Okay, but what about the bold Minimum Support Price (MSP) announcement? After Rabi, now even the Kharif crop will attract a 50 percent profit margin over the cost of production. Surely that’s revolutionary!

Mr P (gleefully pouncing on the last word) : Aah, surely that’s inflationary , my friend! And by the way, did the government spell out the mechanics of this ‘revolutionary’ measure? Will the 50 percent be over ‘C2’ or comprehensive cost of production including imputed rent and interest on owned land and capital, or ‘A2+FL’, which includes input costs plus imputed value of family labour? It would be ‘revolutionary’ only if computed over ‘C2’, but then, where’s the huge budgetary provision for that? Have you heard what experts are saying?

Mr B (disheartened, but not ready to give up) : But see the big sweep of the budget. New taxes on long-term equity gains, cut in corporate taxes, government stepping in to pay the provident fund for new hires, no reduction in defence spending, increase in customs duties, to-

Mr P (cutting in abruptly) : Hah! Increase in customs duties on fifty items, doubling of the peak duty to nearly 20 percent — how does that sit with the Prime Minister’s ‘aggressive’ pitch at Davos against protectionism? This is easily the most protectionist government in the last 25 years, even as we strut onto the world stage to keep trade lines friction-less. What a credibility mess. And do you know that the oil subsidy provision has not been revised despite prices rising by nearly 50 percent last year? Is that sensible bookkeeping? I could go on and on, but there’s no reason to do that. I am only asking for a few prominent column centimetres on Page One, no more.

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Budget ’18 Vs Rajasthan Bypolls – A ‘Virat Stand-off’: Raghav Bahl

With Rajasthan bypoll results & the Union Budget being declared on the same day, newsrooms were in overdrive.

Raghav Bahl

Updated: 02 Feb 2018, 8:51 PM IST

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The first of February had been a knuckle-duster news day so far. The Modi government’s last budget had ended in a stock market loss. And BJP had been routed in its Rajputana citadel. The editors trooped into the newsroom with an urgent spring in their steps.

The business editor, Mr B, had always looked forward to this evening ritual on Budget Day. He loved the sense of power it gave him. Virtually the entire white turf of Page One was his fiefdom.

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Topics: Raghav Bahl Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Congress vs BJP

Published: 02 Feb 2018, 6:57 PM IST