Kelkar panel urges for no subsidies; cautions deficit to widen 6.1%

29 Sep 2012 Evaluate

Amid continuing battle against oppositions for the reform measures taken, the government has been provided with panacea from Kelkar Committee, who has been tasked to chart a roadmap for fiscal consolidation, and as per which the government has to take out half of the per unit diesel subsidy by the end of this fiscal and the rest over 2013-14, trim down subsidy on cooking gas by 25% this year and completely eliminated over the next two years. It has suggested hiking kerosene and urea prices regularly and switch to direct transfer of cash subsidies for the poor.

The panel also urged the centre to improve tax mobilization, trim plan expenses and focus more on disinvestment of state-run firms. It warned that the slow approach to this will cause huge mounting of fiscal deficit for the nation, leading sovereign credit downgrade and curtail foreign capital investments. The committee also cautioned that the deficit for the current fiscal can widen to 6.1% of the GDP against the budgeted 5.1%, also confirmed that the practice of suggestions put forth will ensure that the deficit will stick to 5.2% of the GDP, even though government does not seem to agree with the grim prognosis.

However,  Arvind Mayaram, Department of Economic Affairs Secretary pointed out that the proposals by the committee differ to the objective of the government, which focuses more on sustained and inclusive growth. In a developing country like India, where a significant proportion of the population is poor, a significant portion of subsidies is unavoidable, and measures must be taken to protect the poor and vulnerable sections of the society, he added.

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