Budget blues By Humair Ishtiaq

SOCIETY seems to have come a long way from the days when the annual budget season used to make people excited about what surprise, or surprises, it may or may not bring in its fold. A brief chat with a cross-section of population suggests that life today is all about managing the domestic budget.

Other than the policymakers, for obvious reasons economists and trade associations are the only ones interested in what the government is trying to do and what it might end up doing under pressure from one lobby or the other.

Beyond that, most segments of society have hardly any concern about, say, either the rise or fall of the GDP. Inflation, debt servicing, foreign exchange reserves, tax-to-GDP ratio and all such things are nothing but mere jargon that is unintelligible to the common citizenry.

People just want a budget that could provide them basic necessities of life at cheaper costs. However, they are realistic enough to concede in the same breath that it is not going to happen at least in their lifetimes.

“Ten years ago, the federal budget had some relevance to my life. Today, it has none,” said Zahid Karam Ali, a mechanical engineer in his late 40s who manages a North Nazimabad household of six – his wife, three children and his widowed mother.

“In fact, it was even earlier that the budget had the capacity to have an impact on my life. Then came the era of mini-budgets, but now things are apparently on an auto mode,” he said, adding: “I don’t know the specific reason, but things are clearly beyond the control of the authorities. There are cartels controlling the market and they determine the course of my domestic budget more than the government does.”

Shah Mahmood, a doctor who works for a private facility in the mornings and does his own clinic in Malir area in the evenings, voiced similar sentiments, but gave a new twist to the argument when he called into question the insistence of successive governments on practising good governance in each year’s budget speech.

“We have all heard of what they say on the floor of the house about controlling unnecessary expenditure on the administrative side. It certainly makes for “good news”, but the worth of such pronouncements is quite obvious after all these years. Budget today is a mere formality as far as the common man is concerned. What I know for sure is that the prices will keep going up and it will be always up to me to somehow keep the household up and running,” he said with a touch of finality – if not fatality – about his tone.

Even when the government talks of ameliorating the lot of the poor with one poverty-alleviation programme or the other, no one seems to be quite impressed – not among the poor at least.

The proceedings of a recent meeting in Islamabad were narrated to a handful of those struggling to survive on the poverty line, and the result, almost every single time, was some sarcastic comment.

At the said meeting, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani directed his economic team to prepare a “pro-poor and relief-oriented” budget “in line with the commitment of the government”.

The meeting was attended among others by Adviser on Finance Dr Hafeez Sheikh who “apprised the prime minister of the progress … and specifically mentioned that the objective before the economic team was to gradually move towards economic self-reliance.”

The premier, in turn, advised the team to keep in mind the commitments with the IMF while coming up with a budget that should be “growth-oriented and supportive of business, industry and agriculture”. And, while doing all this, the finance ministry “should provide adequate resources to fund immediate relief measures for the poor and the marginalised segments of society”.

In conclusion, Mr Gilani made it clear to the committee that “the poor had the first right on the national exchequer”, and asked the economic team to “scale down inflation to provide relief to the common man”.

These laudable guidelines, however, are not received with the warmth and appreciation that people in authority would have expected. The poor are not just doubtful about what may actually happen; they are absolutely certain that their “right on the national exchequer” will be suppressed by those who have been asked to “keep in mind commitments with the IMF”.

The argument is simple: IMF and the poor don’t go together. The tone in which the argument is uttered is generally of scorn. However, the biggest roar of laughter and load of cynicism is unleashed once people are told of the government’s declared commitment to “overcome” the challenge of power crisis “in the near future”, and the directive of the premier to the ministry concerned “not to delay plans due to financial constraints”.

At their wits’ end, people across the board are trying to get witty about something on which they have no control except to fend for themselves, wherever they can. There can be no further discussion on the issue once the power crisis is mentioned along with the government’s commitment to make things better in the forthcoming budget.

The owner of a restaurant – a tea-shop, actually – in one of city’s peripheral areas said people used to watch the budget speech on the television set in his shop along with a cup of tea. “Now even if I want to watch the speech, those present on the occasion insist on switching over to some other channel showing movie, music or cricket. Anything will do except the budget speech. It has no relevance to the life of those who come here. It has no relevance to my life either,” he said, underlining the widening gap between the government and the governed.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/economic-and-business/budget-blues-640