UPA reform agenda : Incapability or Non willingness

Event heavy week which includes RBI’s monetary policy meet, Controversial Railway Budget and Union Budget are behind us and most of all out of three event two have proved to be non-event. Railway Minister, Mr. Dinesh Trivedi tried to address issue such as Financial health and sustainability of railways over long term have been hit hit a road block by its party chief and taking cue from such events Mr. Pranab Mukhrjee did not tried to be very reformist.

WHY THIS YEAR’s BUDGET MATTERS

It is quite important to know that this years budget does carry more weightage than other just because by the time we approach next year General election will be too close (just 12-14 months away) and no government would like to present any bold move rather they would include as populist measure as possible just to appease every body, and this is where Macro issues such as Fiscal deficit, Fundamental economic reforms takes a backseat.

If we analyse the second term of UPA they precisely know the numbers are not fully in their favor to carryout big ticket reforms such as GST, Sectoral FDI and Oil sector reform. This was probably the last year where finance minister would have taken calculated risk and defined the road map to carry out the promised agenda. Union budget is a complete failure in this front, neither timeline nor road map so as to how UPA will achieve what it had promised since last 3-4 years.

BUDGET LACKS DIRECTION

Budget 2012 proposals looks half-hearted effort where politics is clearly taking over economics. On paper UPA’s top team is very impressive but somehow neither Dr. Manmohan SIngh nor their high profile Union minister which includes Pranab Mukhrjee, P. Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Kamal Nath delivers the result people is so eagerly expecting. A day after union budget is presented no clear direction for market and investor is defined and this is where government fails to check pulse of people.