Every year in Corporate, a budget is made in the month of February.
A budget basically gives you an idea of what revenues the company is going to generate and what are the spendings going to be. This gives you a feel of how your treasury will look like towards the end of the upcoming year.
After the budget is presented in February and the new year of operations starts in March, every quarter there is a “review of budget”.
This is an exercise made to see if the budgeted targets are being met.
The third quarter review is the most important review as that gives you a perception of how close you are in meeting the budgeted targets. This is the basis on which the next year’s budget is made in February.
Much, to my amusement, I find the Indian junta going crazy over the presentation of the annual budget but never demand the analysis of budget versus achievements, which is the budget review.
If you check the history, there has been no Government which has presented the Budget vs Achievements document with as much zeal as they present the Annual Budget. And no one has demanded it too.
Without such an analysis presented to the people of India (because it’s our money) there is no accountability which can be established for the Government (who are using our money) to see what achievements have been made (for our benefit).
A presentation of the Budget vs Achievements is the only worthy document which can judge the performance of the Government against the promises it has made.
A presentation of just the annual budget every year is nothing but a hogwash which is only used for improving the mood of the junta closer to the upcoming elections.
Just to give you an example:
The Fiscal Deficit Target in 2018 budget was 3.3% of GDP. Till date the Fiscal Deficit is already at 3.78% which is 115% of the budgeted target.
The new budget of 2019 claims that they are going to reduce the Fiscal Budget to 2.4% of GDP…..How?? When they didnt even manage to meet their 2018 target??
It’s easy to keep budgeting targets when one doesn’t have to achieve it 😉
I have tried to do an analysis of 2018 Budget versus the actual achievements, but I haven’t been able to find a single Government website which has detailed its “actuals versus budget” and kept it up to date.
The only credible thing in the Annual Budget is the tax slabs for various income groups. Other than that it’s a White Paper of Propaganda.
The biggest question that still remains is: WHY DON’T WE PEOPLE DEMAND TO SEE THE BUDGET VS ACHIEVEMENTS REPORT??
The post was first published by Darshan Mondkar on his Facebook Timeline.
Disclaimer: Those people who are jumping up and down with joy over the perks this budget is going to offer you, might want to reflect back on the last 4 budgets to check if the perks which were offered then were realized or were they as real as “Ache Din”
