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Created on Friday, 03 January 2014 20:01
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INDIA is lately witnessing a fresh surge of caution and criticism against free trade agreements (FTAs). Both the Finance Minister and Central Bank Governor have lately advocated restrain in signing fresh FTAs with different jurisdictions.
The Parliamentary Standing C ommittee (PSC ) on Commerce is also expected to advice prudence in signing FTAs in a report focused on FTAs to be presented to Parliament in the near future.
Yet another indicator of the growing reservations over FTAs is that Tariff Commission is currently undertaking an ‘Impact Assessment of FTAs/PTAs in capital goods sector', apart from initiating three separate studies on the Impact Assessment of FTAs with ASEAN,Thailand and Singapore.
Read more: India comes under intense internal pressure to rework its FTAs strategy
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Created on Saturday, 07 December 2024 16:10
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(Image Courtesy- taxindiaonline.com)
The bitter wordy duel between BJP & Congress over failures/difficulties in honouring political promises (PPs) is welcome. Welcome because it has turned focus on the Centre and States’ capacity to fund & sustain PPs, which have been marketed as guarantees in recent years.
The politicians’ urge to market guarantees to the poor masses has enriched narrative with racy Hindi phrases such as ‘khata-khat’, ‘taka-tak’, ‘tana tan’, ‘safachat’ and ‘pat pata, pat.’
We need not delve into these Hindi phrases in this column as anyone can find on the Net which leader uttered such or similar words to either laud his/her party’s freebies or deride the ones promised by rival parties.
This column would focus on hard facts on all guarantees including political guarantees (PGs) to enlighten the public about grave risks of reckless PGs over and above off-budget guarantees.
The tsunami of freebies might start a chain of knock-on impact. The effect might start with fiscal crisis resulting in sharp fall in foreign exchange reserves, alarming fall in value of local currency, runaway inflation & crisis of confidence in the country.
Read more: Depleting Coffers - Regulating Political Guarantees is the need of the hour
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Created on Wednesday, 06 March 2024 15:01
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(Cover Page of a Chargesheet by Jan Sangh, BJP's precursor)
Modi Government’s White Paper on UPA rule (2004-2014) & Congress’ counter Black Paper on governance (2014-2024) have enriched murky politics.
Both the documents mark a new high in political cacophony. Black-out of vital facts are a common feature of both the papers.
Both papers have failed to connect each Union Budget with the next one to make sense of missed targets & achievements, unfulfilled or partly honoured promises.
Both papers have failed to cite crucial instances to lend credence to their respective contentions. Both have thus left voters groping in the dark about the truth on different shades of governance during the last 20 years.
Consider first the White Paper. It has a familiar ring of BJP recalling Congress’ alleged misdeeds whenever it faces prickly questions on governance deficit.
The White Paper makes one nostalgic about the BJP’s chargesheet on Congress-led UPA dated 4th April 2014. It had helped BJP sweep the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, knows the crucial importance of the chargesheet as she was one of the six members of BJP committee that prepared it.
An average citizen thus expected the Government to connect the White Paper with BJP’s 2014 chargesheet titled ‘A Dark Decade in Governance’. Mute voter also expected the Government to explain the speed and scale of the delay in acting on BJP’s eight-page chargesheet captioned ‘Damad Shree - The Vadra Get-Rich Quick Model’.
Read more: White & Black Paper(s) have taken Voters for a Ride
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Created on Monday, 03 April 2023 15:25
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(Image Courtesy: taxindiaonline.com)
India's Fiscal domain is facing crisis akin to the climate change characterized by extreme weather conditions. The other day Lok Sabha passed Rs 45 lakh crore Budget for 2023-24 in 12 minutes without debate.
This happened due to persisting daily ruckus created by both the treasury benches & the Opposition MPs.
The spectacle led the Lok Sabha Speaker into applying the usual guillotine to dispense with whatever little was agreed for discussion of demand for grants of few ministries. Guillotine is a parliamentary procedure on financial matter. It is supposed to be applied when lengthy discussion remains incomplete & the House is hard-pressed of time.
Both houses of Parliament barely conduct any serious, debate-driven business. The discussion, if held, is often focussed on blame-game that often spill over into bitter acrimony between BJP and the Opposition.
Hardly any effort is to made to debate the mountain of national, regional and local problems & arrive at a consensus on overcoming them within defined time frame.
The second extreme and unprecedented development was Delhi Government's inability to present the budget for 2023-24 on scheduled day. This happened due to the Centre not approving the Delhi Budget as lieutenant governor (LG) had raised certain queries and wanted changes in outlays.
The Ministry of Home Affairs cleared the Budget only after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue hogged headlines.
Other Opposition parties-ruled States too have been impacted adversely by the Centre's certain decisions on financial matters.
Both these extremities in fiscal domain can derail BJP Government's 2nd attempt in two decades to put India into the orbit of developed nations. This perhaps requires average annual GDP growth of 8% on sustained basis. (Please read https://bit.ly/3KlWbB4).
And two pre-requisites for such robust growth rate are: 1) Legislatures must ensure the most judicious use of public money. This requires scrutiny of all budget documents by MPs and MLAs for asking the probing questions to the Government 2) The Centre should not create hurdles for Opposition-ruled States and treat them on equal footing with BJP-ruled States, which are branded as Double-Engine Government by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Read more: Amrit Kaal Needs Robust Legislatures & Centre-State ties on Fiscal Turf
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