Rahul Gandhi, President of the grand old national party keeps mentioning in his speech ad infinitum that Modi – government refuses to waive farmers loans even as it has [allegedly] waived loans worth hundreds of thousand crore given to industrialists and big businessmen. Nothing could be farther from the truth. As regards farmers loans, in all the states where elections to the assemblies were held in recent times, BJP had promised and actually went ahead with waiver of their outstanding loans – up to specified limit though. A recent example is Uttar Pradesh where immediately on assumption of office last year, the very first decision Yogi government took was to waive farmers loans. True, the union finance minister, Arun Jaitely...
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Category: Welfare schemes
Don’t kill Aadhaar at the altar of privacy
The Comptroller and Auditor General [CAG] has exposed diversion of subsidized food meant for poor households under the National Food Security Act [NFSA] in Delhi – using fraudulent means such as fake ration cards, fake mobile numbers etc – causing loss of over Rs 7000 crore to the exchequer. This is one among several such scams resulting in massive leakage from Rs 145,000 crore being the food subsidy spent by the union government annually. Likewise, there are monumental leakages from other welfare schemes such as fertilizer subsidy, LPG subsidy, MGNREGA [Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act], education subsidy, pension, power subsidy etc. In other areas such as real estate, a handful of persons appropriate public land in prime locations...
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GST/Demonetization/IBC – the trio behind inclusive growth
While, presenting the budget for 2017-18, the finance minister, Arun Jaitely had fixed a target of Rs 9.8 lakh crore for collection of direct tax. Against this, the government has already touched Rs 9.95 lakh crore and is expected to reach Rs 10 lakh crore by the time figures for the last few days of March, 2018 get confirmed. Under the Goods and Services Tax [GST] rolled out on July 1, 2017, out of total collection of Rs 7.20 lakh crore till February, 2018, centre’s share is Rs 4.60 lakh crore which is Rs 16,000 crore higher than the target [Rs 4.44 lakh crore]. This is despite the fact that various tax evasion and safety measures such as electronic-way [e-way]...
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National Health Protection Scheme – an election gimmick
In yet another demonstration of his commitment to take care of majority of the poor, in the last budget [2018-19] of its term before the next general elections in 2019, Modi government has announced a National Health Protection Scheme [NHPS]. Touted as the world’s largest public health care program [bigger than even Obamacare in USA], it seeks to provide health insurance cover of up to Rs 500,000/- to 100 million poor and vulnerable families. Taking an average family size of 5 persons, the benefits are expected to reach 500 million individuals or 40% of India’s population. In his budget speech, the finance minister, Arun Jaitley quipped “It is taking health care to a new aspirational level as it is going...
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Has Modi kept his pledge on jobs?
Modi – government has come under flak for not redeeming its pledge made in the election manifesto to provide 20 million jobs every year. On the face of it, the charge may stick as the actual job creation during the last three years of its stint is a few hundred thousand. But, on a closure look, it turns out that during the last 7 decades since independence, if there is any political dispensation that has worked sincerely and with full dedication for solving problems facing the people including unemployment, it is the present government. All those watching the actions of Team Modi ‘objectively’ and ‘dispassionately’ will not reach any other conclusion. On jobs, which depend on expansion of economic activity...
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Don’t permit loot in the garb of privacy
The unanimous decision of the 9 judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court [SC] pronouncing right to privacy as a fundamental right as an integral part of the Article 21 [grants the right to ‘life’ and ‘liberty’] of the Constitution has been welcome by all sections – including the union government. Prior to this, the position was vague as the founding fathers of the Constitution did not ‘explicitly’ provide for right to privacy as a fundamental right. An eight-judge bench of SC in M P Sharma’s case [1954] said so and the position was reiterated by a six-judge bench in Kharak Singh’s case in [1962]. The present decision by 9 judge bench overrules those two verdicts and lays down...
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War on black money – Modi stands vindicated
Last year when on November 8, 2016 Prime Minister [PM] Modi announced demonetization of high denomination viz. 1000/500 currency notes [at Rs 1544,000 crores, these accounted for 86% of the currency in circulation], this was met with strident opposition not just from the political class but also some leading economists including former PM, Dr Manmohan Singh. The critics bombarded Modi with a tsunami of charges that included inter alia mis-appropriation of the hard earned savings of common man and using that to waive loans given to corporate big-wigs; imposition of financial emergency with persons not being allowed to withdraw money from their own account; causing unprecedented misery to the poor who was made to stand up in the queue [leading...
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Aadhaar – citizens’ welfare versus privacy
Even as Modi – dispensation is pulling all stops to deliver good governance, a major stumbling bloc is intervention by the judiciary; courtesy, a spate of PILs [public interest litigation] on almost every issue that concerns administration and delivery of public services. Unlike the executive where once a decision is taken, it gets implemented within a given time frame [under present government, things are happening in a fast track mode], any matter coming to the court for its decision inevitably gets delayed. A case in point is use of Aadhaar for dispensing various services. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), established by UPA – II in 2009, issues Aadhaar cards to the citizens. Under the scheme, every citizen is...
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Making dodgers pay tax – will CAs help Modi?
Addressing a gathering to celebrate the Foundation Day of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India [ICAI] on July 1, 2017 which coincided with the launch of the most revolutionary reform viz. GST [Goods and Services Tax] of post-independence India, prime minister, Modi shared some startling numbers. Saying chartered accountants [CAs] best understand the language of numbers, he opined “while, there are crores of Indians going on foreign trips every year, crores having luxurious/high end cars and crores of palatial homes/farm houses, yet there are a meager 32 lakh persons declaring their annual income above Rs 10 lakh”. 32 lakh persons declaring income above Rs 10 lakh are mostly from salaried class and include only a fringe of those living...
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Reforming subsidy regime – what makes Modi helpless?
Three years at the helm, prime minister, Modi has been in absolute command at delivering on good governance, dismantling archaic laws, streamlining processes, simplifying procedures, cutting bureaucratic red-tape, reforming institutions, using technology for ‘transparency’ in decisions and above all not letting an iota of corruption happen in any department. These far reaching changes will have a ‘profound’ and ‘sustainable’ impact on the way government does business with stakeholders from all sections of the society. However, virtual absence of policy reforms especially in key sensitive areas such as fertilizers, food, power and oil which also happen to be resource guzzlers continues to be a matter of serious concern. These sectors suffer from structural weaknesses which will not go away merely by...
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