The Hindu Business Line : Not a bad average from the finance skipper

MUCH has been said and written about Jaswant and his Budget. One aspect that remains unsung, at least not in high octaves, is the `implementation of Budget announcement'. This is something that forms part of the Budget papers.

A not-too-old practice that started with his predecessor, the current appraisal is 14 pages long, and covers more than 80 items. Statistically, the phrase "action completed" greets readers at almost 50 places, which translates to a good `batting' average.

On the agriculture front, there is no restriction on creation of new milk processing capacity; export controls on agricultural items are off, but for a high ceiling for onions and the control on Niger seeds (one wonders what they look like); futures and forward trading cover all agri-commodities (and, one day, activity there may overtake what happens on the dull Dalal Street).

A GoM (that is, Group of Ministers) is thrashing out an integrated food law in the place of multiplicity of food regulations; there is the special OTS (that industrialists and corporates routinely benefit from) offering one-time settlement for small and marginal farmers; the new Agriculture Insurance Company is a few months old; the Wardha Institute of Gandhiji is now Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Rural Industrialisation, and so on.

However, announcements such as "Small Scale Industry reservations related to various items of agricultural equipment will be removed", made last year, had to be toned down to "25 items may remain reserved for the time being as these items are very simple in nature". Also, the earlier statement on amendment of Agriculture Produce Marketing Acts — to enable farmers to sell directly to potential processors — had to face the reality that the power to amend lies with the State governments.

Yet, the constitution of a committee "to accelerate reforms in agriculture marketing sector", and its decision to bring out a model law are commendable. Again, the work of the Hemant Kumar Committee — that went into the governance of agricultural research and ICAR's administrative structure — has at least as much importance as the Naresh Chandra Committee that went into audit and the ICAI's role, though far less talked about.

A key item is number 32, which talks about the URIF (Urban Reform Incentive Fund) that generated a lot of interest when it was announced last year. The Rs 500-crore allocation to the Fund was to `incentivise' — reforms in rent control laws and repeal of urban land ceiling legislation; rationalisation of high stamp duty regimes; streamlining approvals of construction; revision of municipal laws; better civic services,etc.

The current Budget papers talk about slow progress on this front, though the Centre is hoping for results by dangling the carrot of fund allocation while using the stick of an MoA (Memorandum of Agreement).

As if to goad the unwilling States, the Government is prepared to offer even a truncated MoA — stating that they would undertake `at least a few areas of urban reforms to start with'.

No wonder, the real estate market has not revved up despite housing initiatives in the Budget. And the City Challenge Fund seems to be a challenging proposition for the govern- ment. Similarly, the year-old tourism dreams are yet to take off. "One special area, the World Heritage Site of Hampi, will be developed as an international destination for tourism based on an integrated master plan," proclaimed Mr Jaswant Singh's predecessor.

The latest progress report talks of Rs 1 crore released for work that "includes construction of shopping-cum-interpretation centre-cum-parking node at Hampi". Too many humps on the tourism drive, obviously; so it would perhaps be wrong to append "action completed" there.

For baiters of babus, it must be music to hear that nearly 13,000 posts have been abolished in various ministries. And for FM-baiters, the about-turn on the fertiliser price hike should have achieved similar results, though they did not have to wait a whole year to earn their payoff.

hindubusinessline@hotmail.com

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