Most Indian taxpayers feel that the Union Budget is not for them. Whether you are salaried, self employed, home maker or retired, few Budget provisions impact you directly. Rarely do any impact you positively. But if you are a farmer or farm owner, budgetary provisions have something for you year after year. Ever since India was an agrarian economy in the 1950s our politicians decided to favour agriculturists. Seven decades later, when we are service driven economy, the country's tax policies have remained unchanged. No politician has dared to breach the topic of tax on agri income. In fact newer sops are awarded each year in the name of Green Revolution. That makes one wonder as to why do scores of farmers commit suicide each year. Where does all the money go? Most of us already have the answers. But Comptroller and Auditor General's latest report bares the facts like no one ever has. The CAG report calls the UPA government's popular 2009 farm loan waiver scheme a Rs 520 bn scam

No, it is not that the CAG is the first one to smell the rat in this case. In fact, this scam should have been one of the first to be unveiled by CAG. Chiefs of PSU banks have been crying hoarse about the piling up of bad loans due to loan waiver scheme for three years. Ever since the scheme was rolled out, PSU banks that were in perfectly good health saw their asset quality worsen. Even the subprime crisis of 2008 did not do to banks in India what the 2009 loan waiver scheme did! Now the government wants to compensate by recapitalizing the banks. Once again throwing away taxpayer money at them!

As for the small farmers who were supposed to benefit from the scheme, very little has changed. As per the CAG report, 37.3 million farmers were given debt relief worth Rs 522.6 bn under the scheme. But in 22.32% of the 90,576 cases checked by the Auditor, ineligible farmers were given benefit. The deserving ones kept reeling under the burden of debt, in the event of a poor harvest.

Unlike the telecom, coal and Commonwealth Games scams, this one has had a scathing impact on not just economic but also India's social well being. It cements the fact that the government's populist schemes benefit no one but itself. Worse, since the Union Budgets are backed by very little mathematical and logical explanations, promises are made out of thin air. It is time the Finance Ministry puts up the math for financing subsidies before asking taxpayers to shell out more! It is time the FM gets more accountable!