Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee laid foundation for telecom bail-outs

 

(Image Courtesy:PIB)

 

It is a tsunami of outcry and anguish over a very fair judgment delivered by the Supreme Court (SC). On 24th October 2019, SC upheld Department of Telecommunications (DOT's) definition of adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

What is there in the definition? Well, truckloads of money as was foreseen by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) way back in 2000. 

The verdict requires telecom service providers (TSPs) to pay to the Government the disputed components of AGR along with interest and penalty as specified in licence agreements. The amount to be paid is estimated in the range of Rs 92,000 crore to Rs 1.4 lakh crore for last over 15 years.

Vajpayee Government trashed CAG’s concern over real and presumptive revenue loss recorded in its report numbered 7 of 2000. And there hangs the 20-year saga of telecom revenue leakages that should come under gaze after SC verdict. It has not gone into the issue of leakages that arise to under-reporting, misclassification and other misconduct. The judgment is limited to AGR definition. 

In 2000, CAG also foresaw risk of repeat of the sob story in future. And the risk has recurred in past with telecom bail-outs & phased reduction in percentage of revenue that TSPs share with the Government. The bail-outs happened both under NDA and UPA. More recall of CAG & two other alarming reports later in this column. 

The emerging headlines are similar to the ones that were splashed in late nineties. That created favourable ecosystem for BJP-led NDA Government to shower unprecedented favours on TSPs in 1999.

(Image Courtesy mea.gov.in)

 

 

“If a location lags for multiple reasons that reinforce one another, a simple tax incentive package is unlikely to attract private investment as intended. It may be more effective to improve its connectivity to major markets and support skills development and industries such as agro-processing and labour-intensive manufacturing”.

This observation made last week by Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s Asian Development Outlook Update is welcome. It should turn focus on the limitation of corporate tax cut (CTC) announced by India. The Government should discuss publicly limited role of direct and indirect taxes in attracting investment and its trade-off with fiscal health of the country.

Let there be a status paper that should factor in non-tax factors that attract or repel investors. The paper should ideally shed light on role of foreign capital in all forms of loans & equity in catalysing growth and jobs creation.  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi marketed CTC as a “very revolutionary step” before multinationals during his recent tour of the United States. CTC might not fire up growth of gross domestic product (GDP). It might not ramp up significantly capital formation. 

Existing companies might well pass off CTC-induced surplus profit as higher dividend to shareholders. The companies might finance shares buyback with such surplus instead of ploughing back in greenfield projects and thus enhance lengthen the chain of CTC benefit flow.

CTC has not been accompanied by reduction or withdrawal of existing tax incentives. This is a departure from the original plan to phase out tax incentives and reduce corporation tax. The regulation & management of direct taxes regime is thus set to become complicated.

Businessmen are shrewd. They would prefer to wait and watch for announcement and interpretation of CTC rules by Income Tax Department (ITD). If CTC benefit is protected statutorily for new manufacturing projects for 15 years period, then they might feel assured to make new investments. 

(Image Courtesy: taxindiaonline.com)

 

“If I were to say that on the strength of these conversations, many and long, I pretend to know all about India, I should be foolish. I do not dogmatise. The man who dogmatises at all is not, I suspect, the wisest of men. But the man who dogmatises about India — and I throw this out for this afternoon's discussion—is a pure simpleton”, stated Lord John Morley.

Lord Morley said this as Secretary of State for India while presenting Indian Budget for 1906 in the House of Commons. His speech is relevant to existing Indian economic slowdown. This is because Modi Government’s dogmatic reiteration of ‘Strong Fundamentals’ as its defence against any economic criticism has contributed to the situation.

Reiteration of this mantra became more emphatic since 2017 when many stakeholders talked of adverse impact created by demonetisation. And ‘Strong Fundamentals’ were invoked by Minister for Information & Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar last week while releasing report card on 100 days of Modi Government’s 2nd tenure.  

Lord Morley’s wisdom require more recall as he presented a surplus budget. In that he proposed further cut in salt tax to enhance purchasing power of citizens. He admitted cost of governance was high when he talked about “fiscal reforms”. Yes, he used the term ‘fiscal reforms’ for colonized India way back in 1906! 

The key to resolving present economic crisis thus lies in first defining it comprehensively by invoking Lord Morley’s speech. He said: “I have heard a thousand times that India is an insoluble problem. Well, the man who runs away from problems called ‘insoluble’ is not fit for politics. I have generally found that what is called an insoluble problem is after all a problem wrongly stated”.

The first step in grappling with economic slowdown and resulting jobs losses is to admit that a grave problem exists. It is certainly not a temporary one as claimed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Unemployment & layoffs won’t disappear with Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar’s claim that there is no jobs crisis.