This is the season when the ear drums of our Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman must certainly be over burdened when the nation turns her advisor on how it is she should present the Union Budget on February 1 at 11 am, the time of the year when well meaning and those not knowledgeable on the nuances will give their opinion. Naturally every segment of the tax payers will have their own take on the expectations, the salaried class reminding the Finance Minister they have had nothing substantive in the last two years and the industrialists hoping for a tax break so as to spur growth.
The rich, middle class and the economically disadvantaged waiting with bated breadth; and if past experience is anything to go by not everyone comes away happy at the end of the speech, for good reasons or otherwise. And somewhere in between are all those who are anxiously seeing what the “last” budget prior to elections of 2024 has in store, chiefly in the sops that are in store as next year’s exercise will only be a Vote on Account devoid of handouts and freebies.
