The Big Budget Themes

Most people think of the Budget as a speech, but it is actually a 280-page document containing eight chapters, six addenda and three explanatory memoranda. In the legal-technical sense, it is also a set of bills tabled for Parliament to approve. It contains a bewildering array of numbers, tables, and charts, denoted in millions, billons and even trillions. There are projections, actuals, ratios, and percentages in spades, some of it in calendar years, and the rest in fiscal years. Eyes glaze over a few pages in and it is easy to get lost, distracted or confused.