The so called 'reforms' supposedly unleashed by the UPA Government is the biggest joke of the year.
How come increasing the Diesel prices that lead to inflation (argument against is that not increasing diesel price will lead to fiscal deficit increasing, which leads to inflation - so it is a case of heads I win and tails you lose to the Government- it is inflation either way - one now, other defered) be categorized as a reform? In the first place why are we not asking the question "What led to the spiralling of the fiscal deficit in the first place?". Why are we not even talking about reducing non-plan expenditure, curbing the cost of the bureaucracy, discarding with the unwanted ministries? Why are we not doing a cost benefit analysis of the porous NREGS, where only less than 15% reaches the beneficiary? NREGS is the single largest culprit for the spiralling fiscal deficit. Why should only the common man pay for the profligacies of a wasteful government? Why are we not hearing about Ministers, including PM and the NAC Chairman doing a cost cutting on their security detail? We may not save much, but at least it gives a feeling that everyone is tightening their belt.
In the first place we need to be transparent about the claims of under recovery that leads to notional losses in the oil industry. I am an ex-oil industry guy myself. With oil prices remaining stable during the past one year, how come the subsidy bill is spiralling day by day?
What is required are sacrifices made by everyone, starting from the top, including industrialists. There are so many ways to raise revenue. Increasing tax collection ( tax evasion is very high in the country, especially sales and corporate tax), reducing expenditure, spending more money on infrastructure that generates employment, restructuring the government and the bureaucracy, abolishing at least 40 ministries at the centre and many more in the States, reducing interest rates that allows entrepreneurs and small businessmen to invest more instead of banks pampering the big industrial houses......... ............the list is endless............
We talk about FDI retail in another post.....................
