TARC Report - What will happen?
GOVERNMENT Government of India is the repository for hundreds of reports of Commissions lying under layers of dust after initial analyses in the media.
When the Commission was constituted DDT reported in DDT 2177-27.08.2013, "The life of the Commission is 18 months - the present Government does not have that much time left. It is doubtful whether the new Government would want recommendations from this Commission - maybe they hope to come back to power. Four out of the six members of the commission are retired Revenue officers and are we expecting to learn from the wisdom acquired by them after retirement?"
So, now we have a new Government which may not want the wisdom from a Commission appointed by the previous Government. And the four Revenue officers in the Commission should know that all the fault lines they reported were in glorious existence when they were leading the Departments. For the last seventy years we have been simplifying the excise laws and now the TARC says laws should be simple and clear. Eureka!
Anyway they have prepared a good report worthy of preservation - and this is only the first of the series - a few more are on the pipeline. The sheer size of the report is mind boggling - 550 pages.
Now who in the Government will read 550 pages of the report even if it contains the wisdom of the Gods? Certainly, the Finance Minister will not have the time to read such a long report. Will the Revenue Secretary read the report and advise the FM? But the Commission wants to see the RS unemployed! I asked my editorial colleague as to who will read the report. He said, "We will" - we have to for we have a reporting job to do.
Anyway there is the Executive Summary which everybody can read - even this is more than 50 pages!