Is zero-base budgeting feasible in Govt.?
THE UNION Finance Minister, in his budget speech last year, hinted at the introduction of zero-base-budgeting in Government. The Andhra Pradesh Governor’s address to the Legislature recently refers to zero-base-budgeting prominently. A wag once quipped, “Governments in India have always been practising zero-base budgeting (ZBB) – for implementing many of the schemes announced, the resources available are zero! What we need is not a zero but a 100-base budget which would give total support to a scheme once it is in the budget.” Jokes apart, the present article proposes to: Outline the basic logic of ZBB; explain the current motivation to try it; give the arguments for and against its introduction; and propose a realistic way forward. Whenever any decision has to be taken in Government, the question that is asked is not, “Is it good or bad, right or wrong?”, but “Has it been done before?” Governments are to a great extent precedent- bound. Studies of budget-making processes in many
