Many honest citizens in India must be wondering what value work has in the lives of people with dedication and commitment. This assumes relevance when in the name of social equity billions of rupees are squandered on subsidies on different accounts being conferred on a constituency broadly classified as "common man", though no one has any idea what this oft repeated words mean. Though much has been written about this obnoxious phenomenon by many critics, the "merry go around" continues unabated with politicians, bureaucrats or economists in the power corridor,not unduly concerned because of the over obsession with vote bank dynamics! A Malaysian journalist has the following to say about the repercussions of subsidies for future generation that will have to bear the burden left behind by to day's "netas".
It is good that India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee acknowledged last week that the country's budget deficit, forecast to balloon to a 16-year high this year, cannot be sustained for many more years. He should know. After all, Mukherjee borrowed a record 4.51 trillion rupees (RM331 billion) in 2009 to fund stimulus packages and revive growth in Asia's third-largest economy. Damaging: Instead of subsidies on power and fertiliser, agricultural productivity would go up much more if the money was put in infrastructure. It has been shown that the subsidies on fertilizers, power and irrigation lead to "huge inefficiencies". One aspect of the revenue-expenditure equation he might usefully look at would be India's hugely expensive system of subsidies.Indeed, a marked failure of the reform process in India has been its inability to come to grips with and reduce the widespread granting of subsidies, often to people who don't need them. Subsidies, in almost all areas where the government still has discretionary powers, have grown exponentially, contrary to the spirit of the economic reforms begun in 1991".
Is it not a paradox that to day's Prime Minister was instrumental in opening up the Indian economy as the Finance Minister in 1991 and in spite of being the CEO of the country to day, he seems to be acquiescing with the reckless economic policies being pursued that is bound to increase the misery of the citizens in the coming years!
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