Union Budget 2014 PC=AJ
The eventual winners were the babus of North Block
SPEAKING on the Budget, Mr. Derek O'Brien said that PC=AJ=4.1. What does this mean? He explained.
Now what this basically means? First, let me dwell on 4.1. The Congress, a few months ago, came up with the 4.1 fiscal deficit number. The current Government has stayed with the number. And this has been an opportunity. If that number was not stayed with, this was a great chance to take some of the stress away, some fiscal space provided so that middle class could be the beneficiaries because the middle class has been suffering double-digit inflation for last six-seven years and in the last two-three years from total absence of jobs. But, maybe, the Finance Minister, in his wisdom, didn't want to go with 4.1 because he thought the markets would tank, credit rating agencies would downgrade us and corporates would find it very difficult to raise money from abroad. However, this was a golden opportunity lost because, as I said, if PC=AJ=4.1, the eventual winners were the babus of North Block.
the PC=AJ syndrome, you could also express in a more boring way, calling it ‘the Congress = the BJP syndrome'.
So, Finance bill 2014 has almost become the Act with several doubts remaining and clarifications required. Let us hope the Revenue Boards will come up with suitable remedial circulars. Unless the Stay issue is legislatively clarified, litigation will only go up - every assessee who cannot pay 7.5% can still go to the Tribunal or High Court for Stay. And the big fish who have demands running into hundreds of crores can get away with a pre-deposit of 10 crores.