Shourie pleads for consensus on further reforms

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 20. The Union Planning and Disinvestment Minister, Mr. Arun Shourie, today appealed for a consensus on pushing ahead with economic reforms and in making alternate arrangements for those whose lives will be affected in the process. ``There should be intense debate within parties on all these aspects. Instead we have only sloganeering,'' he said, while replying to a short duration discussion in Rajya Sabha on economic slowdown, fall in the GDP growth rate and deteriorating financial condition in the context of the mid-term appraisal of the Ninth Plan.

Admitting that there is discord in all parties on pursuing the second generation of reforms, the Minister urged ``collective responsibility'' to ensure a permanent solution to the economic slowdown by focussing on implementation of schemes and improving the quality of expenditure. He pointed out that ``we in this House and in the other House'' have contributed to the erosion of institutions and the ineffective spread of public expenditure by ``getting in each other's way''. Mr. Shourie felt the country can turn the present difficulties to its advantage if the second generation reforms was implemented in real earnest.

``What is required is not a mystery. We have to cut down on subsidies to increase public investment.'' He cited the example of railways which is forced to loss-making passenger operations to the tune of Rs. 3,000 crores. If legislators buried their political differences and allowed the railways to charge market rates, that much money would be released to improve safety and complete unfinished projects.

As much as 70 per cent of the total tax revenue of Rs. 1,63,000 crores went for debt servicing while the implementation of the pay commission recommendations had put an additional burden of Rs. 30,000 crores to Rs. 40,000 crores on the Centre and the States. ``This has led to a cascading effect,'' he said, adding that even the pension figures had gone up to Rs. 20,000 crores annually.

On comparison with China, he said productivity was high in its special economic zones because workers toiled seven days a week with just two holidays in a month. They also put in extra hours without overtime. The quantum jump in farm productivity was because China had embraced the genetic modification technology offered by Monsanto ``whom we chased out.'' China also took decisions quickly and there was little indecisiveness once a plan was formulated. ``Are we prepared for this ?'' he asked.

PTI reports:

Participating in the discussion, the senior Congress member, Mr. S.B. Chavan, said time has come to put a ceiling on the total borrowing as the interest burden had reached an unsustainable level, accounting for over 70 per cent of the GDP.

He said such high level of interest burden has left very little money for developmental activities particularly in agriculture. Referring to the concerns of farmers with the dismantling of quantitative restrictions, Mr. Chavan wanted India to take the lead to evolve common approach of the developing countries to impress upon industralised nations to address implementation concerns of the existing WTO agreements.

Mr. Balbir Punj (BJP) accused the Congress of duplicity in approach to economic reforms. The recent downgrading of India by two leading international credit agencies was due to tardiness on second generation reforms.

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