Shiban Khaibri
It needs a strong will and a courage of fortitude to bite the bullet and 45 days Modi government has done it and demonstrated in a professional manner by presenting its maiden twin budgets – the Railways budget and the General budget for the fiscal 2014- 15. It has made a daring departure from the convention of populism and not sacrificed the basic economic variables to set right and bring on track the Indian economy. Here we should not forget Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi from TMC in the UPA who showed elementary innovative and need based requirements to be introduced in the Railways and wanted to better the services provided to the passengers by proposing to initiate some measures including revising tariff both passenger as well as freight but was shown the door for daring to suggest stem the rot plaguing the Indian Railways. TMC Chief Mamta Bannerjee urged Dr Manmohan Singh to sack the Minister which he “faithfully” did surprising the people but exposing the motivating political weak will. In other words, it can be deduced that religiously caring for and upholding the coalition political “compulsions” became the priority of the UPA Government and that contributed a lot to get the economic mess heaped up. The travesty of the Railways remained that as many as six Ministers were posted one after the other to head it bestowing no or little time to at least arrest the mounting operational losses, let alone toiling towards expansion and modernization of the net work. It became a means of extending liberal concessions all in the name of the poor by not charging even as much as to attain a break even point in operating costs and “absorbing” the difference of cost of fuel and the chargeable fares. UPA1 and UPA2 are on record to have succumbed to populist vote catching measures at the cost of the health of the economy, Railways being at the top. The economic sink and a dismal fiscal situation, a contribution of the UPA regime on account of chiefly carrying on with the “coalition Dharma” needs urgent salvation. Though there was no vacuum of the requisite talent in the UPA dispensation but to keep sticking to the power, it mercilessly sacrificed economic interests and gave a go by to urgent economic reforms. To reverse this trend, Modi Government has taken and appears to take remedial measures in the days ahead.
The Railway budget presented by the Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda is perhaps the first budget when analyzed on comparative basis after nearly two decades to present a transparent state of affairs of the economic health of the Railways and not to use the occasion to promise the moon and the stars and a train of projects never to be started in different states. As against the UPA’s unfinished projects or even those not yet started amounting to a whooping Rs.180000 crore, some of them the core projects remained confined to hollow promises only and never saw the light of the day, while as the project cost continued to soar high with the passage of time. Gowda has shown the paucity of funds in the Railways and advocated for PPP model and FDI to broaden the spectrum of investments. To create the requisite confidence and trust in the prospective investors including the domestic ones is a real task to be accomplished. Fares have been de-linked from politics in the Railways and attached to the price of fuel. It is a bold historic step which demonstrates no bowing to populism with an eye on votes. Votes are not important as much as the country’s economic interests.
Instead of critically appraising the efficaciousness of the Railways budget, largely accepted and liked by the people across the country, Congress workers chose to demonstrate right when the voice of the Minister in the Parliament was still reverberating with the visionary budget, outside the residence of the Minister and even attempting to prevent him from entering his residence. The criticism was not academic based as they had not bothered to read and understand the budget but a cheap one just for the sake of criticism, culminating in the bizarre mode of ripping off the Minister’s name plate and stamping, stepping on and trampling it brazenly to be “noted and carried” by the media personnel covering the disgraceful event. Should we not introduce reforms and changes in our Railway system looking at least to what our immediate neighbor China has achieved? An occasion to watch the inner and outer of their bullet trains, the unprecedented hygiene, cleanliness, professionalism, the discipline even despite a swarm of people at the Railway station, much far better than any of our finest airports, not to speak of the running interior ambience of the bullet train which was phenomenal and a feast to eyes thanks to our electronic media persons who showed to us where China had reached and perhaps why should we all not aspire to reach that developmental stage and support PM Modi to turn his vision into a reality. At least, let our trains be clean, operationally efficient, and punctual with speed and more so change the condition of our pitiable railway stations which are a sight of horror in terms of cleanliness, lighting system, over crowdedness, squatting, noise and filth.
The security issue concerning the women passengers has been addressed by recruiting a good number of women constables. Likewise in the Union budget, Rs.150 crore is proposed to be spent on women’s’ safety in the country. PM Narendra Modi has rightly opined that the budget showed where we wanted to take the Railways and at the same time where we wanted to take India through the Railways. He further told that the budget was futuristic and growth oriented for the common people as it aspired for better services, speed and safety with focus on the development of the country. Our tourism can get a big boost especially from visitors from other countries when a turnaround is affected in the Railway system.
A word about the General Budget presented by the Modi Government is that the budget encompasses almost all sectors of the economy with particular emphasis on improving the manufacturing sector, infrastructure broad basing and creating climate for massive investments both domestic as well as foreign. The step to increase the FDI to 49% in Defence and Insurance is visionary as not only shall the requirements of the Defence sector be met but production spurt in this sector creates no inflationary tendencies. Likewise reforms in the Banking sector to ensure liquidity of funds and to provide a support base like an increase of Rs.240 crore by way of improving the capital base of Banks by 2018 and a mission of “Banking facilities for all households” like steps are praiseworthy. The increasing trend of the NPA accounts which is anywhere over 9% of the total advances result not only in less liquidity but a strain on the profits.
The most important sector is the Agriculture sector with emphasis on irrigation where funds allocation is 27% more than the last year is with emphasis on more credit to farmers and a rebate of 3% in interest in case of prompt repayments. E-visas, visa on arrival, 5 new tourist circuits, upgrading of 9 airports etc are proposals to promote tourism with an annual growth of 8%. National Highways construction with emphasis on the hitherto neglected North East at a cost of Rs.37850 and Rs.11635 for modernizing the existing ports and harbours shall result in generation of employments to people in a massive way. Proposed construction of 100 new smart cities, metros for all cities with population of over 20 lacs, 4 AIIMS, 5 IITs, 5 IIMs and 12 medical colleges and promoting skill development are innovative steps. Fiscal prudence and not leaving a debt legacy, bringing fiscal deficit to less than 4% and lowering of C/A deficit, an annual growth targeted at over 8%. As of now subsidies have not been reviewed to bring them down which shall have to be addressed sooner than later.
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