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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Perils of over promising -Ashok Gulati

Perils of over promising -Ashok Gulati

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published Published on Nov 26, 2018   modified Modified on Nov 26, 2018
-The Indian Express

Manifesto pledges to raise farmers’ incomes and increase MSPs take away focus from the structural reforms that are urgently required.

It is a season of promising freebies to lure voters. The Congress leads in making these promises. The party has promised to waive farmers’ loans in Chhattisgarh within 10 days if it is voted to office. It has also promised a hike in minimum support price (MSP) of paddy to Rs 2,500/quintal, up from Rs 1,750/quintal. This is a 43 per cent raise over the already increased MSP of paddy. In Madhya Pradesh, the party has promised to waive loans up to Rs 2 lakh, MSPs as per the M S Swaminathan formula, a pension of Rs 1,000 per month to marginal farmers above the age of 60 and Rs 51,000 to small holders for their daughters to be married.

When a political party is out of power, it can promise the moon, but when in office, it delays fulfillng its own promises because they are often not in sync with budget realities or any rational long-term vision for the farm sector. The BJP has not been better. It promised to waive farmers’ loans in Uttar Pradesh when it was not in power. In fact, the prime minister promised that the first meeting of the UP cabinet would announce a loan waiver if the BJP were to be voted to power. This seemed to have worked. The Congress seems to have quickly learnt these tricks and is now promising loan waivers in almost all the major states in which polls are due.

If the electioneering in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh is any indication of things to come, next year’s parliamentary election could see political parties promising to waive farmers’ loans in other states, hike MSPs and give pensions to aged farmers. All this could cost the exchequer anything between Rs 2 to 3 lakh crore. The Congress often asserts that if the NDA government can “waive” Rs 2 lakh crore for a few industrialists in the name of “restructuring their NPAs”, what is the harm in waiving the loans of millions of farmers.

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The Indian Express, 26 November, 2018, https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/minimum-support-prices-msp-food-production-economy-5464096/


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