'Seeking a pro-reform Budget strong on implementation'

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Q: Okay if I was going to be specific and ask you to list out the big failures or the big misses because if I were to list out what the last budge that had talked about the direct tax code, they were hoping to introduce the bill in the winter session of the parliament that did not happen, the goods and services tax, the Finance Minister had said that there was consensus as far as the GST was concerned, that has now been delayed beyond the April 1 deadline perhaps going to be implemented only next year, if you were to list out the misses or the failures what would those be specifically?

A: Our history has taught us that about failures as much as missed opportunities. And we seem to be looking at every year as a year that we do not care if we lose because there is another year in the future.

I would have expected the last one year and I said this in my budget speech during the last budget that the last one year was really a wait and watch year, a year for us to consolidate and prepare for the time and the world wakes up from the crisis and the world gets ready to start aggressively investing in emerging markets like India and China. For that we should have done a large number of things architecturally from a point of view of GST, direct tax code. I could mention for example governance reforms, we still are struggling with a very basic element of how to auction telecom licenses.

There are a number of things we could have done from a point of view of a governance reforms that would have prepared India Inc and India to absorb large amounts of FDI and investments that are fundamental to our growth story going forward.

Q: So given what we are seeing on these front, how hopeful are you that Budget 2010 will indeed present some sort of bold reforms that will take the second generation reforms forward. You know the Finance Minister has a challenge on the fiscal side, he has fiscal constraints to deal with so how hopeful are you that we are going to see some of those bold reforms make their presence felt this time round in this budget?

A: I said this in July 2009 and I say it again, I think what we should hope for from the Budget is directional signal. In the last budget the Finance Minister talked about continuous reforms and that really was exactly what we wanted to hear. We wanted to hear that not withstanding what the budget said or did not say that the government was committed to in the next four-five years a series of continuous reforms and not stop and go, stop and go reforms.

Unfortunately, the last one year has not necessarily translated into action around those claims  I would hope that this Budget more than the numbers and the excise duties would indicate a stronger sense of the direction of reforms both governance, both economic and governance in the next three-four years.

Q: Speaking of missed opportunities, I know you have spoken about this in the past, here is what the government that actually has the political mandate, it has the political numbers and hence it should have been able to push through some of those difficult reforms. It is only just gone ahead as far as disinvestment was concerned because that was stuck on account of the Left but pension, insurance, retail non of those are the big ticket reforms that were expected to take place were actually taken place, are you hopeful that perhaps those will get moving this time around?

A: I was hopeful in July 2009. So as far as hope goes, I continue to hope. But more specifically to answer your question I hope the Budget and events around the Budget signal that we are actually going to do it. There is hoping and there is reality. I think the need for us to see real initiatives from the government that put together signal a direction an architecture that will be in a sense the catalyst for growth for the next three-four years.

Q: So the bottom-line if I would ask you, you think that the government has fallen short of your expectation on the economic front in the past year?

A: Yes. I believe that we could have done a lot more. I think last year would go down as maybe somewhat of a missed opportunity.