Instead of a vehicle’s age, let’s use fitness as the criterion for determining whether it’s allowed to ply on the roads or not Whether a vehicle is fit to run or otherwise, a lot depends on how well it is maintained, its timely upkeep; this needs to be tested instead of pronouncing it as unfit merely because it has reached a certain age. (Representative image/ File photo) ———————————————————————– On March 18, 2021, the Union minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, announced a ‘voluntary’ vehicle scrappage policy to (1) mitigate vehicular pollution and (2) more than double the turnover of Indian automobile industry from the current Rs 4.5 lakh crore to Rs 10 lakh crore in a few years....
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Category: The Financial Express
Making urea that is not needed: New Talcher urea project will further worsen the unsustainable fertiliser subsidy burden
The new urea project at Talcher will worsen the already unsustainable fertiliser subsidy burden as retention price at this project may surpass the current high of $350/tonne The RP in turn, is calculated taking into account efficiency norms such as capacity utilisation, energy consumption, capital related charges (CRC), other fixed cost, delivered cost of gas and other inputs, etc. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has recently approved subsidy for urea to be produced by Talcher Fertilizers (TFL) —a joint venture of four PSUs: Coal India Limited (CIl), GAIL, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF), and Fertilizer Corporation of India (FCI). TFL is setting up the capacity of 1.27 million tonne per annum at Talcher, Odisha, at an estimated investment of Rs 13,277...
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What’s ailing PSUs’ sale?
The PM will do well to ‘debureaucratise’ the process of running CPSUs. This should be done even before privatisation is taken up The process of disinvestment needs to be unshackled. Against the `210,000 crore target set for disinvestment proceeds from Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) in FY21, the actual realisation was just about `32,000 crore. Even as the Centre may explain it away as ‘corona pandemic effect’, the prospects in FY22, when the economy is expected to register high growth, don’t seem much better. For this year, the target for speaks for itself. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has fixed the target for FY22 at `175,000 crore, substantially lower than year before. This is despite adding two public sector banks (PSBs)...
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Power Struggle: Centre’s reform scheme is a mere bailout package for discoms
The Rs 3 lakh crore channeled via RLRBSD is merely another bailout for discoms. The only obligation placed on them is meeting targets they Should have to met in 2018-19 That the money is being offered on a platter is clear from virtually no obligation on the discoms (the performance targets set for 2018-19 now gets shifted to 2025). In her FY22 Budget speech, FM Nirmala Sitharaman announced that under the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2021, the government intends to delicence the distribution business, bring in competition, and give the consumer power to choose her supplier. She also unveiled the Rs 3 lakh crore electricity distribution reform programme to reduce losses and improve the efficiency of discoms. Tantalisingly christened ‘Reforms-Linked,...
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Union Budget FY22 misses the chance to reform fertiliser subsidy
The fertiliser subsidy allocation for FY22 signals there will be no reform this fiscal; deficit targets show this is unlikely in the next five years too The subsidy can be restricted only to farmers having less than two hectares. Under the “Stimulus – III” unveiled on November 12, 2020, the Union finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, made an unprecedented announcement to release an additional Rs 65,000 crore towards fertilisers subsidy over and above Rs 71,000 crore allocated in the Budget for FY21. She has followed it up by providing a total of about Rs 134,000 crore in the revised estimate (RE). This should be enough to pay for all subsidy dues, including carry forward from FY20. For FY22, she has allocated...
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Tax Talk: Govt must get serious on bringing gas under GST
It will, of course, cause a revenue shortfall for states, but that can be dealt with by hiking the rate of GST compensation cess In these circumstances, it is unlikely that they would let any of these products be taxed at a much lower rate—an inevitability if they are brought under GST. ———————————————— The ministry of petroleum and natural gas (MoPNG) has taken on board a proposal—mooted by the industry during recent pre-budget discussions—to bring natural gas within the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). This will ensure a uniform tax on gas throughout the country and lower its price for both industrial and domestic use, which may help increase its share in India’s energy mix from the...
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Farm Laws: Centre must not yield to ‘mandatory MSP’
Mandatory MSP and Levies on non-APMC markets will be an assault on the reforms the Union government has ushered in with the new farm laws Currently, under the APMC system, a farmer has to pay three levies on the produce she brings to the mandi, notified by the state government under its APMC Act. —————————————————————— To address the concerns of agitating farmers over the three farm bills enacted in September, the Union minister for agriculture & farmers welfare, NS Tomar, has agreed to consider (i) strengthening the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) by imposing levies at ‘uniform’ rate on purchase at APMC and non-APMC platforms—latter now permitted under the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; and...
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Fertile for Reform: Rational use of urea — Chasing a mirage?
The govt must free up urea pricing and opt for direct transfer of fertiliser subsidies to farmers; no other steps to curb urea misuse will work Second, the need for a comprehensive action plan to increase the MRP of urea was recognized by the Dr GVK Rao committee on Consumer Price of Fertilizers (1987). Over the last five years, the Narendra Modi-led government has made several efforts to tackle diversion, hoarding, black marketing and excessive use of urea—a widely-used fertiliser that accounts for nearly half of India’s total fertiliser consumption. These include (i) mandatorily requiring all manufacturers/ importers to do neem-coating of urea supplies (2015); (ii) making disbursal of subsidy to manufacturers conditional upon actual sales to farmers and sales getting...
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Deregulate pricing: How not to curb urea blackmarketing
Instead of ending urea price control and the fertiliser subsidy—replacing it with DBT for farmers—the govt continues to choose zero-impact administrative measures The government must recognise this flaw in the existing policy, decontrol urea and introduce DBT. In a bid to tackle diversion, hoarding and blackmarketing of urea (a widely used fertiliser that constitutes nearly half of India’s total fertiliser consumption), the Union government has decided to restrict its purchase to 100 bags from 999 bags per transaction by one purchaser. In a letter dated August 27, addressed to state chief secretaries, the secretary, ministry of chemicals and fertilisers, Chhabilendra Roul, has sought their opinions on ‘how many such transactions should be allowed per month to each purchaser’. He has...
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Crushing the competition
The regulator itself refuses to see that competition is being crushed, and even when it sees, its ruling is stayed by appellate authorities—thus, the increasing dominance of digital giants is inevitable. Amazon, some allege, uses the data of products on its e-commerce platform to decide what to sell under its own brand. Big Tech firms such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple have come under the radar of many governments, including that of the US, Australia, and France, for trying to steamroll competition by either buying competitors out or pushing other vendors to avoid working with them. Here is a glimpse of how they allegedly misuse use their dominant position. Google’s search engine is accused of stealing content with the goal...
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