Acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal’s imprint on the interim budget was visible in his speech.
Piyush Goyal took over not only as the acting finance minister, but also the headlines this week.
He is the first chartered accountant in recent times to present the budget, which explains his ease with numbers. His past few predecessors have been lawyers, although Goyal holds a law degree too.
Piyush Goyal presented his first budget as the interim Union finance minister on Friday. Never mind that it was an interim budget ahead of the 2019 general elections, the announcements in the budget were akin to a full budget enabling the Modi government to sign off on a high.
Goyal assumed charge as the finance minister in the absence of Arun Jaitley, just a week before the presentation of the budget. By then, the contours of the budget had already been finalised and the printing of the documents had commenced.
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But Goyal’s imprint on the interim budget was visible in his speech.
His decision to thank the taxpayers three times in the budget for their contribution to nation-building warmed him to the taxpaying community, although there were some disappointments among the upper middle-class for being left out of the tax largesse.
Dressed in black with a grey overcoat, Goyal’s speech was loudly applauded by his party members with constant and loud desk thumping.
Goyal’s speech was politically correct: Starting off with wishing Jaitley speedy recovery and repeatedly mentioning Modi’s vision and leadership. It was also an election year speech listing out the achievements of the Modi government in the last five years benefitting different sections of society.
However, Goyal’s speech was termed ‘dry’ by commentators and devoid of any humour or quote from any poet or historian barring a brief two-line verse in Hindi from the works of a Hindi poet towards the end of his speech. Goyal is said to have used a modified version of Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh’s poem, though he didn’t name the poet.
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The only other deviation from the budget was his mention of the film Uri, after being nudged by senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, while announcing sops for the film industry. “I was fortunate to get to watch Uri. There was such josh in the theatre,” Goyal said.
Besides finance, Goyal holds the portfolios of railways, coal and corporate affairs.
Always considered a finance minister in waiting, Goyal had a brief three-month stint as the finance minister last year after Jaitley underwent a kidney transplant. He is said to have rubbed a number of senior bureaucrats and state finance ministers in the wrong way, but that hasn’t stopped him from making a comeback as the finance minister.
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Termed ‘Modi’s man for all seasons’, Goyal was the party’s treasurer responsible for raising funds for the party.
Both of Goyal’s parents were politicians. His mother, Chandrakanta Goyal, was a three-term BJP MLA and father Vedprakash Goyal served as Union shipping minister in the Atal Bihar Vajpayee government and the BJP’s national treasurer. Goyal completed his education in Mumbai topping the Government Law College. He is also a rank holder in the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India exam coming second among his batch.