Those of us expecting big bang announcement in budget for 2015-16 in regard to fertilizer reforms may have been disappointed. The budget for 2014-15 had mentioned that the government would set up an Expenditure Reforms Commission (ERC) on rationalizing subsidies. ERC under Dr Bimal Jalan ex-governor, RBI submitted its interim report about a month back which heightened the possibility of major initiatives being taken in this budget. Yet, in his speech, finance minister maintained a stout silence. Are we then to conclude that government has missed an opportunity to reform the sector yet again? Such a conclusion may be a bit premature if one were to take a cue from post-budget briefing of Chief Economic Adviser (CEA), Arvind Subramanian and...
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Category: Fiscal levies
A crude anti-reforms attitude
Unkind burden And illogical too jorgen mcleman / shutterstock.com The Gujarat government’s efforts to squeeze out more royalty from ONGC could impact production and exploration The Modi government is keen to take up administrative and judicial reforms in a big way, but the actions of the Gujarat government may become a stumbling block. A case in point is the Gujarat government’s decision to collect a royalty of 20 per cent on the discount given by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on sale of crude to downstream oil PSUs. It stands to reason that royalty or cess should be levied on the sale price (after discount), as has been established by precedent as well. However, the Gujarat government’s...
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