WHILE the budget is a good six months away, it is a positive sign that our parliamentarians are taking note of an exercise that is the foundation of a nation’s development. However, they need to remind themselves that budget-making calls for careful, informed input which should begin months before the annual exercise is undertaken. At present, budget-making is a thoroughly bureaucratic job. A bureaucracy stuck in a groove has many disadvantages, like the unwillingness to take risks and indifference to popular urges. Nevertheless, the bureaucrats are armed with statistics and have the requisite academic qualification and expertise to make a budget. The issue is to make the budget welfare-oriented, and that is possible only when officialdom is checked and guided by the people’s representatives. This exactly was the purpose of the move in the National Assembly on Tuesday. Thwarted for procedural reasons, the proposed amendment to the rules of procedure demands that every ministry send its budgetary proposals to the relevant house committee, and that the lower house have a pre-budget session to finalise demands for grants and appropriations.

In developed democracies, political parties have panels of their own on key issues — economy, education and foreign and defence policies. In many Commonwealth countries, parties have shadow cabinets — in Australia, the opposition elects shadow ministers — which not only criticise the government but have well-argued policy options of their own. This system is lacking in our country. Parties mostly impart a ‘dynastic’ flavour and revolve round personalities. This leaves hardly any room for political parties, even those among them that do not have an heir apparent, to study a given issue independent of political considerations and come up with suggestions that they could implement if they are elected to govern. The budget debate in the National Assembly is mostly political rhetoric, and it is only seldom that we hear a speech that is truly economic in essence. While the move for a pre-budget session is welcome, it is time our parties developed expert panels on economy and finance to make the annual parliamentary budget debate meaningful.