100 days 8212; Progressing but haltingly

NEW DELHI, JAN 21: Taking their cue from the Prime Minister's advertisement in all newspapers today, various ministers have begun calling ...

NEW DELHI, JAN 21: Taking their cue from the Prime Minister8217;s advertisement in all newspapers today, various ministers have begun calling press conferences to extol the progress their departments have made in the first 100 days of the government. Petroleum minister Ram Naik held one today, Food Minister Shanta Kumar is holding one tomorrow, and Communications minister Ram Vilas Paswan has postponed his till Monday.

In legislative terms, the government8217;s progress in getting through critical bills is excellent. Almost all bills promised, with the exception of the Money Laundering Bill, have been passed and this one was passed by the Lok Sabha but was referred to a select committee by the Rajya Sabha. So, the insurance sector has been opened up, the outdated FERA has been repealed, and so on. That all of this was pushed through in one single session of parliament, is even more credible.

The progress on cutting the fiscal deficit, however, is quite limited. While the government has appointed an expenditure commission, and is talking of the possibility of bringing in a Fiscal Responsibility Act in the Budget Session part of the NDA agenda so far the fiscal deficit is all set to overshoot the target by a huge amount. According to ICICI Securities I-Sec, the government is expected to exceed its fiscal deficit target by Rs. 25,000 crore in 1999-2000 in the first eight months of the current fiscal has crossed 80 per cent of full year8217;s budgeted figure of Rs. 79,955 crore.

The oil pool deficit is increasing unabated with the subsidy on kerosene and LPG ballooning to well over Rs 12,000 crore, and the government losing the initiative to raise prices after the public furore over the diesel hike in October.

Similarly, while the government has professed its commitment to downsizing, one of the first acts of Atal Bihari Vajpayee was to carve out new ministries to accommodate his allies, and create six new secretary level posts a separate ministry for tribal affairs was created, for instance. Later, a separate disinvestment ministry was also created.

Despite this, however, the privatisation process hasn8217;t really picked up. Under the earlier schedule, for instance, Warburg Dillon and Read were appointed financial consultants for the sale of IPCL and the bidding was to take place by mid-December. Later, the government developed cold feet, and even said in Parliament that no decision had been taken on this. Similarly, the government had agreed to sell ITDC over two years ago, but the process remains in limbo last heard, in November, it put out yet another advertisement to appoint a financial advisor for the sale.

The most eloquent testimony of the problems the government is facing in reforms, and the hype it is creating of its successes, of course, is symbolised by the Prime Minister8217;s Council on Trade and Industry. Comprising of top-notch industrialists, this time around it was reconstituted to include infotech heavyweight N.R. Narayanamurthy of Infosys and telecom giant Rajeev Chandrashekhar of BPL.

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But of the six such sub-groups formed in the last Council, virtually no suggestions were implemented, so the first thing done this time around was to create an Implementation Review Committee in the council! And yes, at least one sub-group, headed by Ratan Tata and Nusli Wadia this time, has the same brief on removing outdated regulations and procedures as one sub-group headed by Kumaramangalam Birla the last time around.