Modi Government's Report Card: Budget 2015 promises it has fulfilled so far

For the last one year, Mr Modi has highlighted a stellar performance by his government. We have witnessed him showering praises on the BJP schemes during his foreign trips and campaigns in India. Now, as we inch closer to the Union Budget for 2016-17, it’s time to question whether the Prime Minister’s assured rhetoric matches his government’s record so far.

Business Insider found a Finance Ministry list highlighting the promises which have been met relating to the last Budget, including those of subsidy and agriculture. Based on the claims, what follows is a report card on the 2015 Budget promises that Modi government has been able to fulfill so far. Take a look:

-- Direct benefit transfer for LPG called Pahal

The scheme was launched on November 15, 2014 in 54 districts and in the rest of the country on January 1, 2015. Under the scheme, LPG cylinders are sold at one price ie the market rate. Consumers get Rs 558 in their bank accounts so they can buy LPG at market rate of Rs 605 per 14.2-kg cylinder. Subsidised LPG currently costs Rs 417.

As many as 10 crore LPG consumers joined the ambitious scheme of getting cash subsidy in bank accounts to buy market priced cooking fuel, making it the world's largest direct benefit transfer and helping end black marketing. In August, the Prime Minister announced that it helped save Rs 15,000 crore by stopping black marketing and diversions. He also announced that at least 20 lakh people voluntarily gave up their subsidy on LPG helping widen the reach of the scarce fuel.

-- Digitisation of ration cards

Digitisation of ration cards - one of the important components for making PDS leakproof - is on its way to completion. By April 1, 2016, the National Food Security Act (NFSA) will be implemented by all states with 100% digitisation of ration cards. It will be achieved soon along with online grievance redressal being introduced in all 36 states and Union territories.

To cite figures, as of first week of December, digitisation of ration cards has been completed in 29 States/UTs. Over 32 crore ration cards have been digitized and over 8.5 crore ration cards have been seeded with Aadhaar.

-- Farm credit

Budget 2015 focused on development of agriculture with emphasis on reforms, credit facility and financial assistance. The agriculture credit target for 2015-16 was raised by Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 8.5 lakh crore. It promised to create a unified national agricultural market to boost agricultural productivity and farmers' income. Banks may not have surpassed this target as Arun Jaitley expected but monitoring of agriculture credit is being done on a quarterly basis. Moreover in view of the challenge two successive droughts and deficient post-monsoon rainfall posed to agriculture last year, the government is mulling increasing institutional credit to farmers from the present Rs 8.5 lakh crores in the upcoming Budget.

-- MNREGA

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the flagship welfare programme of the previous UPA government, appears to be staging a revival of sorts. The July-September quarter witnessed 45.82 crore person-days of employment generated under MGNREGA. This was the highest for the quarter in the last five years. “It was more than even the 42.40 crore person-days during July-September 2012, which also happened to be a not-so-good monsoon year. According to officials, the last quarter (October-December), too, posted a similar trend.

“In October alone, we provided 14.09 crore person-days employment, a record for the month. The data for the entire quarter is still being uploaded in our MIS (management information system) portal, but our expectation of the total person-days of work during October-December is 47 crore. That will again be a five-year-high for the quarter,” they said.
Recently, the Finance Ministry made it clear that Budget allocation of Rs 34,699 crore for improving quality and effectiveness of MNREGA has been approved.

-- 'Paramparagat Krishi Sinchayi Yojna'

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana - a scheme aimed at giving a boost to productivity by ensuring irrigation facilities is also on its way to achieve the desired results. The Vision is to ensure access to some means of protective Irrigation to all agricultural farms. Government claimed that widespread work has been undertaken and lakhs of farmers are being educated about modern irrigation methods to give ‘Per Drop More Crop’. It is also motivating groups of farmers to take up organic farming.

The Finance Ministry recently said Rs 300 crore was allocated in 2015-16 to this scheme against which Rs 178.23 crore has been released so far. In a matter of few months, they will be able to use the rest of the money to complete the demands of this scheme.

(Image credits: TOI)