Pollticks: Jobs get highest mention in last Budget before elections

In a bid to soothe several votebanks before the 2024 polls, the FM promises tax relief for the salaried middle class, schemes for artisans and tribal groups, sops for women and MSMEs, and jobs for youth

With the global economy adrift, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sought to carve out an ark for India in her fifth Union Budget by trying to nudge domestic consumption and reluctant private investments upwards, while also seeking to create a feel-good factor among specific segments of voters as the government gears up for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The FM summed up the BJP-led government’s achievements since 2014 as “leaving no one behind”, taking just 200-odd words to outline the doubling of per capita income to ₹1.97 lakh, the increasing formalisation of the economy and the expansion of targeted benefits. She then used the rest of her Budget speech to soothe sections of society that may have felt a tad left behind over its nine-year-tenure.

To assuage the salaried middle class, deflated by a sustained streak of high inflation, the tax-free limit under the new exemption-less income tax regime was raised to ₹7 lakh from ₹5 lakh. The cap on non-government employees’ leave encashment at the time of retirement was raised to ₹25 lakh from ₹3 lakh.

The first Budget of the Amrit Kaal -- the 25-year period leading to the centenary of Indian independence in 2047 -- aimed to build on existing “inclusive development” efforts that assign overall priority for the underprivileged, the Minister said. She launched new socio-economic development schemes: the PM Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups Development Mission, and the PM Vishwakarma Kaushal Samman to support artisans from weaker sections and Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.

Some measures were also announced to alleviate the lot of micro, small and medium enterprises that have faced successive shocks over the last few years, from demonetisation to the pandemic.

While the Finance Minister addressed various sections’ aspirations through her less-than-90-minutes speech, the broader underlying message was aimed at India’s restive youth and their hopes of securing a job.

References to “job” creation in a Budget speech hit a six-year high, with the Minister flagging it seven times in different contexts, compared to just two mentions in the 2022-23 Budget speech and three references in the year before that.