Thursday, February 28, 2013

031 Budget 2013 will not make any difference


Budget 2013-14 presented by Indian Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram, in Indian Parliament, on the 28th February 2013, will not make any difference for the people or for the country. Mr. Chidambaram is only continuing a decay which has set in, long back. Of course, it is true that, Indian Economy is not beyond Redemption. But Herculian efforts will be necessary.

Who harbinger-ed the decadence of the Indian Economy?



Indian Economy is already moribund. The decay started, the moment, Mrs. Indira Gandhi started steering the country as India`s Prime Minister.

Of course, Mrs. Gandhi, blamed the Chinese invasion and the Indo-Pak War 1965, as reasons for the dilapidation of the Indian Economy. This is only about 10% true.

Not that there was no corruption during the tenures of first-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and 19-month Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Sastry. But, during their tenures, corruption did not become respetable.

What is wrong with the 2013-14 Indian Budget?

Ans: We should ask 'What is not wrong with the 2013-14 Indian Budget.

Question: Give one example. Are you not too pessimistic and skeptical?

Ans: I am writing this comment, with full knowledge of what happens on the country-side. For example, the Central Government will allow a subsidised loan interest rate of 4% p.a. to only those farmers who repay the loans in time.

Most Banks and Agricultural-Co-operatives extend their loans only to big-land-owners, in whose names title-deeds and land-records stand, as owners (paTTAdArs) and cultivators (kAstudArs). Even where loans stand in the name of small and marginal farmers, very often, they tend to be either benAmis (proxies or surrogates) or fictitious.

Most absentee-landlords do not till their lands. They lease out their lands for fabulous rents , informally, without getting reflected in land-records. They live in cities. The agricultural loans taken by them will be invested elsewhere, such as purchase of gold or gold-trading-schemes, or for hoarding agricultual commodities, to sell in black-market during scarce-season. The landlords living in villages also do not lag behind. They use the agricultural loans borrowed from Public Sector Banks @4% p.a., for relending to tenant-farmers or small and marginal farmers in the village @24% p.a. Thus they earn a profit of 20% p.a. without doing anything, at the cost of Central Government and the small-marginal-tenant-farmers.

The small-marginal-tenant-farmers have to repay their loans to the landlords, irrespective of droughts-floods-and-pests. All the benefits such as agricultural-debt-relief, msp-minimum-support-price, input- subsidies, crop-insurance-claims, etc. are all cornered by the landlords.

Unable to bear pressure from landlords-cum-money-lenders, marginal-small-tenant-farmers are driven to commit suicides by consuming pesticides.

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