Budget 2016 - Write off Pakistan Dues - 300 Crores

By Vijay Kumar

I am never tired of repeating this.

There is one item consistent and uniform in all Union Budgets from 1950. If you look at the Annexure-5(i) to the Receipts Budget of India, 2013-14, you will find certain interesting figures.

India's debt by the end of March 2016 would be around rupees 69 Lakh Crores which would be more than 74 lakh crore by the end of March 2017.

As per the Statement of the Liabilities of the central Government, the Total Liabilities are Rs. 68,92,213 Crores. From this an amount of Rs. 300 crore is deducted and the net liability is shown as Rs. 68,91,913 Crores.

What is this amount of Rs. 300 Crores?

This is supposed to be "Amount due from Pakistan on account of share of Pre-partition debt (Approx)".

This same amount had been shown consistently in all our budgets since 1950, including this year's.

In 1950-51, when our total liability was Rs. 2865 Crores, this 300 Crores was deducted to arrive at Rs. 2565 Crores. Thus, the dues from Pakistan constituted slightly more than 10 percent of our debts. Ten percent of the present liabilities would amount to about 6.9 Lakh Crores, about half of today's budget.

Even at 6% interest per annum, this would amount to about Rs. 15,000 Crores now.

The fact is that we are not able to collect this amount from Pakistan for the last 66 years. Why should we keep showing it in the budget year after year? Is it to show our inability to collect from Pakistan or do we send a copy of our Budget to Pakistan to remind them gently that they owe us Rs. 300 Crores? Why can't we simply write off this 300 Crores and be done away with it instead of having this blot in all our annual budgets year after year? As a goodwill gesture, can't we tell Pakistan that their dues are written off?

This is something that the Finance Minister can consider without sacrificing any pecuniary benefits and perhaps the Prime Minister can earn a few goodwill points.