Has the Tide Turned? : Response to Union Budget 2014-15

Union Budget 2014-15 is the first budget of the new government at the Centre. Some of the complex issues like price rise and corruption were central to the General Elections held in early 2014; hence, the new government faces the formidable challenge of tackling such deep rooted problems to fulfil the expectations of people from different economic strata. The government announced a number of policy changes in the run up to the presentation of the Union Budget 2014-15 in Parliament, such as, allowing FDI in defence, reforms in environmental clearances, allowing hike in prices of non-subsidized LPG cylinders, raising train fares by 14.2 percent and freight rates by 6.5 percent, and declaring potato and onion as essential commodities by bringing them under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA). However, the Union Budget 2014-15 came as the first holistic policy document of the new government, expected to deal with a range of issues plaguing the country through fiscal policy measures. It is in this context that people from different sections of our society were likely to have high expectations from this budget.