EXCLUSIVE: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to skip WEF Davos meet to focus on Budget 2018

Arun Jaitley

Finance minister Arun Jaitley is unlikely to travel to the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos next week, preferring instead to put the finishing touches on the Union Budget due to be unveiled on February 1.

Jaitley's decision to skip the marquee event in Switzerland underlines the importance the government attaches to this Budget, the last full one before general elections due next year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading a high-powered delegation to Davis to hardsell the India story, and the fact that his finance minister has opted to stay home suggests that measures are being finalised to deliver a much-needed booster shot to the economy.

This budget comes in the backdrop of lingering effects of two disruptive reforms: Demonetisation and GST. The government will like to address concerns about job creation, rural distress and a general economic deceleration amid lingering effects of demonetisation and a patchy GST implementation.

Agriculture will likely be dominant theme of Budget 2018 because the government would like to address the political risks of an agrarian distress. Agriculture is a now caught in a peculiar flux: output is rising, but pricing are in a deflationary trend, implying farmers, despite record output, has seen incomes fall or remain flat.

The Budget is likely to announce specific measures targetted at doubling farm income by 2022 and a new agriculture export policy is also on the anvil.

The finance minister is also expected to announce a major rejig in tax slabs and rates that will give more money to the salaried and middle class to spend. There is also a high likelihood of an across the board cuts in corporate income tax.

The Budget will likely mark out the youth, particularly those who will turn 18 this year, as the 21st century change agents. The implicit message will be to reach out to the youth (centurions or those born in 2000) as a catchment vote bank, appealing to their sensibilities much in time before the poll bugle is sounded for the general elections in April-May 2019.

The Budget will also define the broad contours of creating a “New India” by 2022 that was free of corruption and identity-based divisive politics.

Jaitley’s decision to skip the Davos meet is primarily aimed at giving final touches to these aspects.

Modi will be attending this meeting – a first for him and for any Indian Prime Minister in two decades. Prime Minister Modi will be addressing the inaugural plenary session of the meeting that will begin on January 23 and will conclude on January 26.

The Prime Minister will be reaching Davos on January 22 and will likely meet Swiss premier Alain Berset during the day where he is expected to discuss the issue of financial transparency and black money.

As many as 120 global CEOs of companies such as Google, Microsoft, Nike, Citibank, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, Sony, Philips, HSBC and Unilever, etc, are likely to join the dinner to be hosted by PM Modi.

The WEF’s annual flagship meet that runs for four days at the popular ski resort in Davos-Klosters , Switzerland will see experts from the fields of economy, business, politics, literature, entertainment, academics and civil society converge and discuss ideas to improve the state of the world’s economic development and overcome leadership challenges across the globe through ideas of good governance and solutions.

About 370 political leaders, 1900 experts from the business community and close to 900 top representatives from the civil society will attend the meeting.

Among global leaders, apart from Modi, who are due to attend include familiar names like US President Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister Theresa May, Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, France President Emmanuel Macron, EU President Jean-Claude Juncker, IMF MD Christine Lagarde and Italy Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

Modi will lead a high-powered team of ministers and some of the most revered business minds from across the country. Commerce & Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu, Railway and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal, Petroleum and Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Atomic Energy and Space Minister Jitendra Singh and MoS External Affairs MJ Akbar will accompany PM Modi in the meeting.

From the business community, industry leaders including Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, Wipro Chairman Azim H. Premji, ICICI CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar, Adani Group Chairman and Founder Gautam Adani, Chairman Bajaj Auto Ltd India Rahul Bajaj, Chairman Bharti Enterprises India Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Hero Group India Pawan Munjal, Chairman Jet Airways (India) Limited India Naresh K. Goyal, Chairman JSW Group India Sajjan Jindal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer Paytm India Vijay Shekhar Sharma will be a part of separate sessions at the meeting.