In elections-after-elections to state assemblies, it has become normal practice for political parties of all hues to promise waiver of farm loans in a bid to swing votes in their favor. They even succeed in forming government. Last year, in Uttar Pradesh [UP], loan waiver to all small and marginal farmers promised by BJP was a major factor in catapulting it to power in the state. But, it cost the state exchequer around Rs 36,000 crores. In Punjab, Congress won elections on the promise of waiving all outstanding farmers bleeding the state by thousands of crore. Recently, in Karnataka, the coalition government led by JD [Secular] leader, HD Kumaraswamy has announced a loan waiver [albeit partial] costing the state about...
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Dealing with NPAs – ‘Project Sashakt’ will weaken banks
A legacy problem that continues to haunt Modi – government is high non-performing assets [NPAs] of public sector banks [PSBs]. Swept under the carpet for several years by the erstwhile UPA regime, it has acted with alacrity in recognizing the NPAs and created a robust architecture for resolving them in a time bound manner. It enacted the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code [IBC] [December 2016]. Superseding all existing laws on bankruptcy [those were ‘piecemeal’ and lacked ‘bite’], this is a holistic legislation that forces the banks and judicial bodies into prompt action. It has made amendment in Banking Regulation Act [BRA] arming the Reserve Bank of India [RBI] with requisite powers to give directions to banks for making reference to the...
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Minority shareholders – judiciary endorses oppression by brute majority
Cyrus Mistry – scion of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group [SPG] which holds 18.4% shares of Tata Sons Limited [TSL], holding company of the Tata Group – was elevated to the position of Chairman, TSL in 2012 [after serving several years as director on its board] with full support of Tata Trusts that has majority ownership of TSL at 66%. Mistry continued at helm for 4 years even as his performance was commended by the promoters as well as independent directors of all leading group companies viz. Tata Motors Ltd [TML], Tata Steel Ltd [TSL], Tata Consultancy Services [TCS], Tata Power Ltd [TPL], India Hotels Co. [IHC], Tata Chemicals Ltd [TCL] etc. Yet, he was removed in a meeting of TSL...
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Unemployment allowance – a disastrous idea
For some time now, the principal opposition party viz. Congress has run an overzealous propaganda campaign to create an impression that four years of Modi – rule has failed to generate jobs. In doing so, it has blatantly ignored all round development work being carried out by the present dispensation in all spheres of economic activity – at a much greater space than under the previous regime – which inevitably leads to massive job creation. At present, India does not have an institutionalized system of collecting comprehensive and real time data on jobs. The only systemic data compilation is by National Sample Survey Organization [NSSO]/Labor Bureau which does its survey only once in 5 years and covering only 8 core...
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GST – far from simple, if not ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’
On completion of one year since launch of GST [Goods and Services Tax] on July 1, 2017, even as NDA – government gets into celebration mode, it is also facing heat from the main opposition party [read: Congress]. The latter has resurrected its main plank of criticism that the extant architecture of multiple tax rates [zero, 3%, 5%, 12%, 18%, 28% plus a number of cess on certain demerit items in 28% slab] is far removed from an ideal ‘single’ rate. Reacting to the above, prime minister, N Modi has opined that in a country such as India wherein there is preponderance of poor, ‘the tax on food and other essential items cannot be the same as on Mercedes-Benz car’....
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Robbing policyholders to pay depositors
The IDBI Bank – a public sector bank [PSB] in which the Government of India [GOI] holds 80.96% shareholding – is in deep financial trouble with non-performing assets [NPAs] as a percentage of the borrowings reaching a high of 28% as on March 2018. Despite infusion of Rs 10,600 crore in 2017-18 for its recapitalization, the capital adequacy ratio [CAR] is barely close to the minimum required 9%. In the budget for 2016-17, the government had announced its intent to divest majority stake and transfer control to a private promoter. After dilly dallying on this for over two years, the government has now taken a U-turn and decided to let Life Insurance Corporation [LIC] hike its stake in IDBI Bank...
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FDI in food retail – Amazon faces policy hurdles
In the budget for 2016-17, the union government had announced 100% foreign direct investment [FDI] in food retail – both offline and online. However, such investment was subject to retailer selling only the food procured from farmers in India and processed locally and undertaking investment in back-end infrastructure. The Indian retail market is worth over US$ 650 billion of which food alone accounts for about 50%. The market is dominated by small grocery [or the so called mom-and-pop] stores. The organized retail constitutes less than 10% despite the private sector [albeit domestic] having made forays into retail for over two decades now. So, the opportunities for FDI in food are unprecedented. In this backdrop, one would have expected a big...
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Can UDAY herald a power boom?
The state electricity boards [SEBs]/power distribution companies [PDCs] occupy a pivotal position in the electricity landscape of India. Besides owning generation plants and transmission infrastructure/lines, they are engaged primarily in supply and distribution of power [own plus quantity purchased from independent power producers (IPPs)] providing last mile connectivity to homes, farmers, industrial units and business establishments etc. Maintaining SEBs/PDCs in a state of robust health is of paramount importance to ensure uninterrupted supply of quality power in requisite measure to the users, making timely payments to IPPs and suppliers of raw material such as coal [to keep their own generation stations running], ensuring proper upkeep and maintenance of the transmission/distribution infrastructure and timely servicing of loans taken from banks/financial institutions...
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Sugar-cane mess – let market forces deal with it
The arrears of sugarcane farmers [money that sugar mills owe to them for their cane supplies] running into thousands of crore has been a perpetual headache for the ruling establishment both at the centre and states. Last year, in the run up to assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh [mills owe the maximum amount to farmers in this state], Modi had promised immediate payment of all arrears and for the future, ensure release of payment by 14th day counting from the day the cane is delivered to the factory. On assumption of office, the BJP government led by Yogi redeemed the commitment by clearing all arrears. Yet, last month, BJP lost the Kairana by-election to Lok Sabha. A major reason for...
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RBI puts growth on backburner, yet again
The decision of the Reserve Bank of India [RBI] in the bi-monthly monetary policy review on June 6, 2018 to increase the repo rate/the policy rate [rate at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks] from existing 6.0% to 6.25% has led to widespread disappointment especially from the industry and trade. In 2016, the union government had put in place an institutionalized framework viz. the Monetary Policy Committee [MPC] to formulate the monetary policy and determine the key interest rates. The committee consists of six members drawn from different fields including the governor, RBI who is also its Chairperson. With this, the process was expected to become more informed and objective – free from the idiosyncrasies of the governor...
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