Letters to the editor dated June 15, 2021

This is with reference to ‘Why fiscal prudence in a pandemic year?’ (June 15). In India, the last major reforms were in 1990s. Today, markets look to government spending to stir up the economy. Fresh funds need to be sourced far more for growth than to meet revenue expenditure.

There is equally a need to stimulate demand by putting more disposable income in the hands of both rural and urban households, whose wages have been falling since 2018. When the economy is passing through difficult times, imaginative initiatives like the New Deal fiscal push in the US during the Great Depression of the 1930s are called for.

Navi Mumbai

This refers to ‘Step-up working capital loans to street vendors: RBI nudges PSBs’ (June 15). If there is one financially backward community that has to be helped on a priority basis, it is street vendors. The Covid pandemic has destroyed their livelihoods. Even before the pandemic, most of them were surviving on money borrowed from unscrupulous moneylenders.

It is time State governments collected information about them and registered them on an official websites. The RBI advising banks to increase working capital loans to all street vendors is a welcome step. Proper identification and follow-up of these loans by banks are essential so that only genuine and honest borrowers benefit.

Hyderabad

Apropos ‘New I-T e-filing portal continues to face glitches; some features yet not functional’ (June 15), one fails to comprehend the rationale behind the tax authorities rolling out the new portal in such a hasty manner. It reminds one of the sticky issues that had cropped up during the hasty ushering in of the GST regime in July 2017.

Sadly, no lessons were learnt from that. Should proper homework not have been done before embarking upon the introduction of such a novel income tax evaluation regime?

Bengaluru

The recent decision by the Centre to reduce the gap between two Covishield shots for students travelling abroad for study and the special inoculation drives ushered in by several States for such students have only added another element of bias in the country’s vaccination policy. The policy is already afflicted by the digital divide and rural-urban disparities. At a time when several parts of the country are reeling under the problem of vaccine shortage, any policy decision regarding prioritisation of certain sections of the population need to be guided by the principle of equity. What the country needs at this juncture is a liberal vaccine policy that allows all students in the country to return to conventional classrooms.

Several foreign universities have made arrangements to resume in-person classes but made vaccination compulsory.

Sholavandan, TN

The refers to ‘RBI sharpens tools to fight Covid 2.0’ (June 15). The liquidity-easing measures, besides incentivising banks to lend to the various afflicted segments of the economy, will help usher in an economic revival. But to have the intended outcomes, the government has to execute more intensive measures to accelerate vaccinations. The localised lockdowns are restricting credit absorption, despite the availability of cheap institutional credit.

Pumping credit without ensuring the strength and feasibility of economic activities will add to the woes of the banking sector that is already weighed down by high level of non-performing assets.

The present directives on restructuring of loans is imperative to enable borrowers come out of the ravages of Covid; yet for banks, it is a potential challenge. The governments at the Centre and States must provide more relief and stimulus packages to accelerate the revival of the economy to make the credit-oriented package worthy, and prevent the birth of bad assets in the banking sector.

Changanacherry, Kerala

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