Below the line

Inspector raj?

Arun Jaitley’s maiden Budget may have, through indirect tax proposals, relieved the stress of the manufacturing sector. But it has brought stress to the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), rues a senior revenue department official.

Thanks to various constraints, the CBEC has been quite unable to raise resources. But it has to garner nearly 26 per cent more revenues this fiscal than the previous one. This means additional revenues of ₹1.26 lakh crore! Let’s hope industry is not faced with an ‘inspector raj’ this year.

Forward thinking

The Forward Markets Commission has removed the upper age limit for the post of CEOs of commodity exchanges. Now, those above 60 years of age can also apply. And this has given a fresh lease of life to many retired bankers and bureaucrats. The Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) is trying to rope in a new CEO and is now receiving plenty of applications from former bureaucrats and bankers.

The line-up includes Ramesh Razdan, former chief executive of SCHIL; Subhash Chander Kalia, former executive director of Union Bank of India; and Ajai Kumar, former chairman and managing director of Corporation Bank.

Guiding the Minister

After the Union Budget 2014-15 was presented in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, the nodal ministries decided to brief the media about proposals relating to their sector. Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan chose to double check with top bureaucrats of his ministry for nearly half an hour before speaking to the media. Clearly, the Minister did not want to commit a faux pas ; nevertheless, he completely ignored the fact that excise duty on branded petroleum had been cut.

Tech-savvy government

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has embraced technology like no other politician in the country. And that seems to have had an impact down the line. Last week, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal dedicated a coal mine in Jharkhand to the nation and spoke to the locals via video conference.

Asked a wag: “Will Cabinet meetings now be held over video conference if the Prime Minister or someone else is not available?” One can only wait and watch.

Of sweat and saving

Hyderabad never had it so bad in recent times, with power cuts stretching up to six hours a day. The culprit is the delayed monsoon, in addition to the usual suspects — demand outstripping supply and not enough capacity addition. While the citizens sweat it out, the powers that be have been making bold statements on contracting power from neighbouring States. One silver lining from the power crisis is the sharp fall in power bills of citizens. The present power crisis is leaving the consumer sweating, but he’s saving money the hard way.

The Empire stays back

Diamond merchant Sanjiv Mehta, the owner of the East India Company, was in Mumbai recently on a vacation. Having studied at Sydenham College in south Mumbai, he was keen to launch his company by entering the business of retail and real estate. He seemed less worried about the acceptability of his brand (what with its negative colonial connotations) than about high taxes and cost of real estate, which have led to second thoughts about re-entering the country.

Pressing matters

At a press conference held by an airline last week, journalists were taken aback when a senior executive on the sidelines was ticked off for organising a party held the previous night and the press meet as well. The poor executive fumbled for words as his senior colleague told him rather sharply that he should start cutting down on expenses to make up for these “indulgences”. You can’t get more low-cost than this, can you?

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