Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha of the opposition party BJP said the country has seen a drought of economic reforms over the last five years. Sinha, who himself presented five budgets when the NDA government was in power, said he would expect three things from the incumbent finance minister: a roadmap for reforms, a plan to tackle the fiscal deficit and either an overall or sector-specific stimulus.

Sinha added that Pranab Mukherjee was the best man in the UPA government for the job of the finance minister. “I’ve known him for a long time. I think he is a very mature person and politician. He understands the problems of the country and therefore even being in the principal opposition party, I would say we all expect a great deal from Pranab Mukherjee.”

Excerpts from the exclusive interview with Yashwant Sinha on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: You have run finance ministries, you have presented budgets – I’ll start by asking you the most basic of questions. It has been 45 days roughly since this government was elected. The first 15 days went in the formation of the Cabinet. Do you think the Finance Minister and Finance Ministry in these 30 days has had enough time to put out a fully fleshed out, well thought out and proper budget document?

A: First, this budget is valid for only about eight-nine months. However, it is the same finance minister who had presented the interim budget [in the previous government]. He would have given some thoughts in the interim budget about what the final budget should be like. So, in a way, it is a continuation of the same thought process. I would think that the time that Pranab Mukherjee has had is enough because in the interim budget, most of the expenditure proposals are finalised because the expenditure proposals are for the whole year. Therefore he could concentrate on either new items of expenditure which he might include in the expenditure budget, on the revenue budget, on the fiscal side and on the new schemes that this government might want to introduce.

Q: I asked this question because between the interim budget and this budget has come in probably an election result which was unexpected even by the government in power – to that extent do you think they would have thought about what their next budget step would have been because may be this mandate came unexpectedly?

A: Apart from the fact that it has been a very convincing victory for the ruling alliance, there is another factor that you may not have taken into account when he presented his interim budget: the delay in the monsoon, which might lead to some crop failures. However, I should think that he has had enough time. He otherwise also had the option to present it a later date, say, August 6, than on July 6.

Q: He has another budget coming up in seven months time. Let me request you to put yourself in his shoes and say do I want to make my first budget a big one or I just do something which works for seven months, not an interim budget but my big policy moves come in the first proper budget which is lying seven months down the line where I have more time to think about it – which would it be?

A: I was in his shoes way back in 1998 when presented a budget on June 1 and then presented another budget in February the next year. However, I would say that this is the first budget of the new government, this is the first regular budget of the new finance minister in a long time and therefore this is an opportunity that he may not want to miss as far as many facets of a real budget are concerned. I don’t think he has the option of postponing it to next year.

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