To ensure ‘hope’ for the consumers, producers, distributors and traders of Haryana, we need to conduct a FATE (Future Anticipated Trends & Events) analysis of the Haryana budget 2022-23 likely to be presented on March 07, 2022. Chief Minister Haryana as Finance Minister (FM) Shri Manohar Lal should prove to be diplomatic by showing the wisdom in dealing with the public economics of the State.
It is pertinent to mention that the budget speech 2021-22 by Shri Manohar Lal as finance minister (FM) in the state assembly of Haryana on March 12, 2021, gave a sense of satisfaction to the common man called CM. The provisions made in the budget 2021-22 are necessary but to make them sufficient for achieving the pragmatic goals of Atmanirbharta calls for the honest implementation of the programmes therein.
The state budget size of Rs 1,55,645 crore in 2021-22 have to be hiked to a considerable extent for achieving sustainable development in after covid (AC) era. For reducing fiscal deficit if not becoming revenue surplus, there is a strong case for winding up Haryana Tourism Corporation a public sector enterprise maintaining 44 Tourist Complexes is running on loss due to free-rider problem by the government paraphernalia.
The four pillars of the CM as FM in 2021-22 budget including prioritisation of key areas, creation of a medium-term expenditure framework — MTEF, Reserve Fund, outcome led growth, and focus on implementation deserve to be continued. It has been noted that health, agriculture and infrastructure are the key priority areas that need focus on recovery and resurgence. During 2021-22, the government did not utilize borrowing space by adopting tough, fiscally prudent measures. Essentially, it means that we managed to maintain our borrowings around the original provisions of the FRBM Act. For outcome led growth, the Government has to lay special emphasis on achieving outcomes, to ensure that the public money is allocated and spent in a productive, focused manner targeting specific outcomes.
To implement National Education Policy 2020 with a focus on HOTS- Higher Order Thinking Skills with creativity, innovation and critical thinking, we need to allocate sufficient resources which inculcate glocal (thinking globally and acting locally) value system.
It is pertinent to mention that the writer interacted with the Chief Minister, during the workshop of Vice-Chancellors and Registrars of Private Universities held on September 09, 2021, at Raj Bhawan Haryana at Chandigarh. During the discussions, it was submitted that:a) ‘To implement the National Education Policy 2020, we need to adopt public-private partnership (PPP) model in higher educational institutions such as provide sports coaches to private universities for utilizing play grounds’. b) That the Government of Haryana should get GST exemption on certain educational products and equipment and take up the matter with the GST council. c) The user charges and fee structure have to be linked with the prevailing inflation rate based on Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Towards this objective, we have to focus on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through various budgetary allocations and focused implementation of the schemes deserve to be enhanced. Haryana has become the first state in the country to have linked the budgetary expenditure to progress under specific SDGs by establishing an SDG Coordination Centre in collaboration with UNDP and intend to take this forward through the Haryana Institute of Fiscal Management which deserve to be strengthened with experts and other human resources. The initiative of the family card (Parivar Pehchan Patra) has made rapid strides and has achieved comprehensive coverage for improving the ‘Ease of Living’ of citizens of the State, by targeting ‘paperless’, ‘faceless’ service delivery to citizens.
We need to become street SMART ( simple, moral, action-oriented, responsive and transparent ) to achieve the well-defined vision of the Haryana Government which is of the firm conviction that grassroots Governance alone can offer solutions to the basic problems people face. This means transferring essential decision-making powers down the Governance pyramid including those to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) as well as the Panchayati Raj Institutions(PRIs).
To ensure true empowerment of PRIs, all schemes of the Rural Development Department including District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Sansad Aadarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), Pardhan Mantri Aawas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G), SwaranJayanti Khand Uthan Yojana (SKUY), Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin (SBM-G) etc. have been transferred to the Zila Parishads along with functionaries. We have to explore the possibilities of transferring more schemes of different departments working in rural areas to the PRIs to achieve the goal of decentralization.
Keeping in view the resource crunch in the economy, the conspicuous consumption at micro and macro levels have to stop. There is a need for sharing the responsibility calling for the pricing policy of public utilities to be linked with inflation. Puncher tires of the economy may be re-tired with the provisions in the budget 2022-23. We can be hopeful for the things to take shape in the real sense by understanding and adopting the canons of public expenditure advocated by Dr B.R. Ambedkar that every Government should spend the resources garnered from the public not only according to rules, laws and regulations but should also see that ‘faithfulness, wisdom and Economy’ are adhered to in the acts of expenditure by the Govt. of Haryana.
We have to adopt a sustainable fiscal path for needed growth with infrastructure investments by keeping in mind the receipts that fall in the domain of needonomics required for atmanirbharta in Haryana. We can achieve morality, opulence, victory and empowerment to participate in the socio-economic development with the common sense approach of Needonomics, Needo-health, Needo-education, Needo-employment, Needo-employability and Needo-entrepreneurship in Haryana. Let hopes of the people from the budget turn true for marching on the path of progress and prosperity.
The writer is Vice-Chancellor Starex University Gurugram www.starexuiversity.com (Haryana).