The Finance Minister said, among other things, the focus of the Union Budget 2017-18 is energising our youth to reap benefits of growth and employment.
The good news is the Budget is consistent with the principle of fiscal prudence, rather than introducing anything new. While the fiscal deficit and current deficit have been planned well, there is an attempt to increase investments in infrastructure like rural housing and rural infrastructure - roads, potable water, additional railway lines, increase in defence budget and so on. These should increase employment opportunities and indirectly benefit our country’s youth.
Secondly, it focuses on skill development to set up centres in new areas. Given the huge number of young people joining the labour pool each year, the budget-makers should have put some focused thoughts on this aspect. Our demographics have to be leveraged so that it pays us the dividend; else, it would become a curse. I think, the budget could have done better on this.
Several other areas received attention such as personal income tax, tax for medium-sized companies up to `50-crore turnover, funding of political parties, cash transactions and so on. These are welcome moves and could indirectly benefit our youth.
A few concerns evident in the Economic Survey 2016-17 include pace of job creation, new investments from private sector companies and the health of our banking sector. Each of these have serious implications - directly as well as indirectly - for our youth. The budget doesn’t seem to significantly address these aspects.
I am optimistic that GST, which is round the corner, and government programmes, which are in strategic areas of skill, financial inclusion and economic development, will bring in the impact of demographic dividends that all of us are optimistically looking for.
Aditya Mishra
CEO, CIEL HR Services