Role of public sector banks lauded

The Union Finance Minister should seriously consider imposing a tax on the agriculture sector and introduce social security scheme for the people.

At a post-budget round table organised by the BL Club and sponsored by the Syndicate Bank, some of the features of the Union Budget came under criticism from Mr Vishweshwar Mudigonda, Senior Director, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt Ltd. “No Finance Minister has looked at taxing agriculture,” he noted, and said that India needs to do something for the people. “We don't have any social security service or pension scheme,” he pointed out.

Prof T.S. Ramachandran, Faculty Coordinator, Christ University Institute of Management (CUIM), set the ball rolling during the discussion by recalling Mr Mukherjee's first budget in 1982. “29 years later he has presented his sixth budget. In 1982, the budget was all about taxes, but now, we look at the fiscal deficit and financial inclusion.” He urged the students of CUIM to take a macro view of the situation. The round table was held at the Christ University campus.

Mr K. Devananda Upadhyaya, General Manager, Syndicate Bank, lauded public sector banks for their resilience and said that the Government's desire to make the public sector banks their vehicle for reaching out to the common man was proof that the government had faith in these banks. “When America caught the cold, the UK got a fever and countries such as Greece, Poland, and Spain started to sneeze. Around 158 banks in the US closed shop. But such things did not happen in this country.”

He said that the public sector banks were instrumental in reaching out to the poorest of the poor in India and told the students of CUIM to consider working in public sector banks, where he said there was a huge opportunity for youngsters. “Around 70 per cent of us will be retiring over the next five years,” he pointed out and asked the youth to don the mantle of reaching out to India's less fortunate sections.

Mr S. Krishnan, Head – Global Taxation, Infosys Technologies Ltd, also took a macro view of the economy like Prof Ramachandran. “In 1991, when reforms were started, we did not have international reserves to last even one week. Now, two decades later, we have come a significant way forward.” He said that India, this time, has taken significant strides to move from an agrarian economy to a services economy. “Two decades ago, agriculture accounted for 30 per cent of our GDP, and now it is just 17.1 per cent. Similarly, services accounts for 54 per cent of our GDP now and two decades ago, it was 43 per cent.”

Another panellist who pointed to the drawbacks of the budget was Mr Narendra Jain, a Partner with Narendra, Nilesh, Mukesh & Sarwan. Mr Jain said that the tax-GDP ratio was going down. “Due to exemptions, the tax that the government collects from corporates is low, and due to this, we have a fiscal deficit on our hands.”

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