WEEKEND LIGHTER: BUDGET AS CHANGE AGENT
WEEKEND LIGHTER: BUDGET AS CHANGE AGENT
(February 13/14, 2016, No. 7/2016)
Feel free
to mail your views on this edition of WL to mgwarrier@gmail.com
I
Budget as Change Agent
I expect Budget 2016-17
to be different from earlier budgets. Sometime back, in an article posted
@moneylife.in I had observed:
“Every year, the Economic
Survey, which is presented just before the budget, gives an overview of
developments affecting the basic features of economic growth and therefore have
implications on subsequent financial management. This year, government could
consider presenting a paper giving indicative information on the resources that
can be tapped for mobilisation of resources for promotin growth and
government’s priorities about their deployment over time. The sectors could
include:
(i)
Areas including agriculture income, now
enjoying tax concessions.
(ii)
Tax waivers, including those extended to
corporates, provided during the last 5 or 10 years and the benefits derived. An
attempt should be made to make beneficiaries plough back to the exchequer, a
portion of the benefits they derive out of such concessions. Though this may be
happening in different ways(like employment generation, reduction in exports
etc), there is no transparent and meaningful analyses in these areas.
(iii)
Real Estate is another grey area. States
and Local Self Government authorities may create an inventory of unutilised
built-up areas, both residential and commercial. A nominal tax on unused/unsold
buildings and commercial space could be thought of. This will improve real
estate market.”
The
article published @moneylife.in was included in my suggestions posted at FM’s
website in response to invitation for suggestions. Thousands of citizens have
communicated their suggestions/expectations to the finance ministry. Though
these views may not fully represent the aspirations of the people, one expects
that they will influence the budget exercise in some way some time.
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II
Recent
responses
February
12, 2016
Unwelcome
move
This refers to the report
“Union budget may boost take-home salaries” (The Hindu, February 12). On the
face of it, the proposal to discontinue recovery of provident fund contribution
from the wages of employees with low income would appear a worker-friendly
initiative, putting more money in the employees’ pockets. In effect, the move
reduces the corpus intended to take care of the employee’s retired life by
half. As there are no social security systems of the kind available in
developed countries, workers in the organised sector get protected to some
extent by their savings through PF contribution. It is cruel on the part of
government to lure them by promise of more take-home pay by reducing their
forced savings for a genuine purpose.
Such a gesture to reduce
employees’ contribution should be made only where employers are able to
compensate by increasing their contribution to PF to the extent employees’
contribution is reduced.
Ethically, smuggling such
drastic measures through budget proposals, which get through without adequate
informed discussion in compelling circumstances, should not be an option. This
happened in the case of withdrawal of Defined Payment-based Pension Scheme and now
the same mistake is likely to be repeated. Legislative processes should not be
skipped for administrative expediency or on grounds of political compulsions.
M
G Warrier, Mumbai
February
11, 2016
Right
signals
This refers to the report
“EPFO Plans One-time Bonus of Rs750Cr in FY16” (Economic Times, February 11).
This is a welcome move from EPFO, which sends out a message that the EPFO is
managing the huge corpus of funds entrusted to it by small savers
professionally and when surplus income is earned from investment of such funds,
a part of it shall be shared with the owners of the corpus. Government should
not dampen the initiative by raising issues like the impact on interest rates
elsewhere.
A related issue is the
continuance of National Pension System (NPS) as an independent scheme. For
Centre, it will be expedient from management and administrative angles to
entrust NPS also to the Employees Provident Fund Organisation after making
necessary legislative changes.
M
G WARRIER, Mumbai
III
Faith
The Hindu, February 12, 2016
Who is the seer?
The atma
is an amazing subtlety and its uniqueness continues to inspire wonder and
astonishment. The atma’s existence
cannot be proved in tangible terms. It is held to be the essence of
consciousness and bliss and is eternally existent. Whatever methods are used to
prove coherent truths in life based on reason cannot be applied in establishing
the truth of the atma, though it is a
self-evident truth, said Swami Gautamananda in a lecture.
Rationally speaking, what is
seen is to be believed, goes the saying. But the atma cannot be seen by the senses. It is beyond the grasp of all
the senses. Yet all know it in their inner depths, though one can never
categorically prove that it exists or, conversely, establish that it does not.
Scriptures quote the analogy
of the dream to explain the subtle nature of the atma. The dream, though seen during one’s sleep, has an existence
only in one’s thought. Its validity is purely through one’s inference of the
dream. What is more important is the fact that the one who sees the dream
exists before, during and after the dream. Likewise, seeing, hearing, inhaling,
tasting and the ability to touch and feel objects are possible because of the
senses. But the senses are ineffective to operate on their own and it is the atma that enables then to function. The
mind is operated by the atma. It
takes the form of the object and reveals its nature. So the eye sees many
objects. But it cannot see its own self. The atma cannot objectify itself. It is the subject. So who is the
seer? He is the Kshetrajna who can
never be the object that is seen and understood. He can only be recognised as
the eternal consciousness, the subject and the knower of the created universe.
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