New Delhi: All eyes are on Union finance minister Arun Jaitley as he prepares to present the last full-fledged Union Budget on Thursday amid expectations that it will contain dramatic announcements to boost a favourable economic and political narrative before the crucial Assembly elections in eight states in 2018 and the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.
An overdose of populist sops in the Budget, say experts, will be biggest indication if Prime Mini-ster Narendra Modi is thinking of conducting an early Lok Sabha election and will outline the plank on which BJP will contest the Parliament elections.
Also read: Union Budget 2018: Key highlights
A more financially prudent Budget will be an indicator of the government waiting for the short-term negative impacts of GST on the GDP to fade away and job generation to bounce back before the Lok Sabha polls scheduled in May 2019.
In the Budget, Mr Jaitley has the tough task of appeasing a demanding middle class, revive the rural and agriculture sect-ors and push growth whi-ch is at a four-year low.
Mr Jaitley is widely expected to give relief to the middle class in personal income-tax by raising tax slabs to win the support of the vocal segment of the population that has been hit by GST which, among other things, raised the service tax to 18 per cent.
