Budget work

They don’t Count–Weaker Sections
Bharat Dogra

Alot of hectic activity in big business circles is seen every year around the time of finalisation of the annual budgets of various state governments and the central government. This happens because various business interests and lobbies try to present their interests before the government in the most effective way, sometimes linking their narrow interests to some wider public interest, real or imaginary. Various businesses have the resources to do this work effectively and sometimes they succeed in getting their way even when the odds initially do not favour them, or they do not have a strong case.

This raises the crucial question—who will do such advocacy to protect the interests of the poor and marginalised sections of society? Seen from the wider perspective of social and economic justice, clearly the biggest need is for protecting the budget interests of these weak and marginalised sections, but it is precisely these sections who lack the means to present their case in an effective way at the time of budget-making.

What is more, the question is not just one of advocacy at the time of budget-making. There is also a clear need to later follow-up this work and keep checking throughout the year that the allocations made for the weaker sections are actually followed and funds are not diverted from these allocation to other areas.

This requires a continuing effort, access to government documents (or other relevant records and studies) as well as a lot of expertise in analysing budget and other financial papers. Findings of analysis need to be disseminated widely with the help of media. If such an effort succeeds in getting more allocations for the weaker sections, or ensuring that allocations that could have been diverted are actually spent for the weaker sections, then, such an effort can lead to benefits of crores of rupees (or even hundreds of crores of rupees in exceptional cases).

At a still broader level, there is need for wider analysis of expenditure and revenue patterns from the perspective of weaker sections. At the grassroots level, there is need for analysis of the budget making of local self-government organisations, and also helping their budget-making when needed.

The growing realisation of the importance of these various functions has led to the emergence of budget related civil society organisation in various states and at the national level for 'budget analysis' or more simply for 'budget work'. As Yamini Aiyar and Amitabh Behar write in a paper on 'Budget Work in India', "Budget analysis can be defined as the process through which state budgets are scrutinized from the perspective of the poor and marginalised. Its focus is on critically evaluating budgetary allocations made by governments at the beginning of the fiscal year and tracking expenditure undertaken on the basis of these allocations to determine the extent to which policy translates into outcomes".

Further on the importance of these efforts these writers say, "The relevance of budget analysis lies in the fact that it has provided civil society with a tool through which it can effectively bring the perspectives and concerns of the poor and marginalised into the process of policy formulation... Budget analysis has thus emerged as an important tool through which civil society organisations can directly engage with the state to promote accountable, responsive and people centric governance. More importantly, through budget analysis civil society organisations have successfully demonstrated the importance of strategic engagement with the state for promoting a people centric democratic discourse."

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 35, Mar 10-16, 2013

Your Comment if any