-Reuters SUPALI: Two years ago, Vilas Yelmar took out a 200,000 rupee ($3,610) bank loan to develop a small grape orchard in a dusty hamlet southeast of Mumbai. The bank has repeatedly asked for the loan to be repaid, but Yelmar, whose annual income has risen to 2 million rupees, has spent the money on a new sport utility vehicle and a lavish family wedding. He is one of an increasing number...
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Finance ministry for 10% cut in non-plan expenditure
-The Economic Times The finance ministry on Thursday announced a 10% cut in non-plan expenditure in the current fiscal as part of austerity measures aimed at containing its ballooning fiscal deficit. The Centre is aiming to bring down its fiscal deficit to 5.1% of GDP in 2012-13, from 5.76% in the previous fiscal. It also hopes to cut its subsidy bill to below 2% of GDP this year. The ministry has argued that...
More »Give debt relief or Trinamool will step up heat: Mamata-Sumit Sen & Nirmalya Banerjee
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday threatened to bring her anger to the streets of New Delhi and launch an agitation in the capital if the Centre didn't give in to her demand for a moratorium on Debt Repayment. In a rare and exclusive interview to TOI at the Writers' Buildings in Kolkata, the Trinamool Congress chief didn't once utter the words "threat" or "pullout", but her message was...
More »Mamata's blackmailing tactics: Centre ought to resist it
-The Economic Times On Saturday, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee told New Delhi that it had 15 days to announce a debt-relief package for the state. She did not specify what would happen after the deadline, but said that her patience was wearing thin. The Centre cannot give in to such blackmail. Banerjee doesn't have to bother about the huge risk that this demand creates. The Centre has few powers to write...
More »Ask in haste, repent in leisure-Devadeep Purohit and Meghdeep Bhattacharyya
A moratorium is not the magic bullet that can slay Bengal’s fiscal demons, several economists have said, pointing out that postponing the inevitable will be of little use unless backed up by a revenue mobilisation road map. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had yesterday set a 15-day deadline for the Centre to announce a three-year moratorium on the payment of interest on the loans Bengal had taken. “A moratorium on repayment obligations can...
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