POST BUDGET DISCUSSION 2018
Feb 05,2018
The gathering witnessed the presence of experts from various spheres of life, like Viplabh Chatterjee, Rohit Vaswani , Prof S C Sharma, Dr. Subhash Sharma, Director, CEPR, Dr. Ashwini Mahajan and R S Butola, Former Chairman, Indian Oil Corporation, who gave their valuable inputs for critical yet constructive analysis of the budget to bring forth the sectors which have a scope of improvement. Anilesh Mahajan, Senior Associate Editor – India Today moderated the event.
The panel discussed about the, Pradhan Mantri Jan Ausadhi Yojana, which makes medicines available at affordable rates. Earlier, Yojana’s procurement was limited but NDA government revived it and it was branched out from Central Public Sector Undertakings or CPSUs to Current Good Manufacturing Practices or CGMP manufacturers. The introduction of e-tendering, they believe, has made the process transparent and the Government has surpassed its target of 3000 stores.
The panel shortlisted the efforts of the Government, aimed at helping people in the rural area. The efforts include the Minimum Support Price or MSP enhancement and also ‘Bhavantar Yojana’, which is a scheme to compensate the government for horticulture growers at the lower prices of their produce in Mandi. But, these policies lack proper implementation and the Government must focus on it.
Introduction of 10% Long-term Capital gains tax was deemed sensible and will affect only a small section of economy. The decision of merging smaller public-sector companies, insurance companies, and banks to make them more efficient and profitable, was appreciated.
The panel suggested that 6% of the budget should be spent on education and the expenditure on health and education should increase irrespective of any government.
The discussion was concluded by Kashmiri Lal, National Chief, Swadeshi Jagran Manch, who expressed happiness about the fact that the government did something in the interests of the farmers. He said the growth of the nation depends upon its expenditure on innovation and R&D sector.