The Union Budget for 2012-13 generated huge expectation about the Union Government’s keenness to reduce ballooning subsidies that have been a major source of its fiscal targets going awry. The then Finance Minister promised to contain the total subsidy bill within 2 per cent of the GDP in the current fiscal and at 1.75 per cent in the next three fiscals. However, there is little to show for any credible action plan in this regard. The recent measures to restrain subsidies in diesel and LPG are too little and too late. As far as fertilisers go, the powers-that-be have not even demonstrated a basic intention to walk the talk. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has recently approved a meagre...
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