Towards a better Economy

By Vijay Kumar

1. freeze non-development expenditure under the defence budget for the last three quarters of the current financial year;

2. 20 per cent reduction in non-development expenditure of civil departments and ministries;

3. gradually impose tax on services and agriculture sectors at the rate of eight to 18 percent;

4. stoppage of government financial intervention in stock markets;

5. non-provision of supplementary grants to government departments;

6. increase in mark-up rate of banks and on inter-bank transactions;

7. uniformity in the inter-bank and open market dollar exchange rate;

8. devaluation of rupee; and

9. end subsidies on gas and electricity.

Well, these are not solutions for India, though they appear good enough for India, but these are said to be the conditions imposed by IMF for a loan of 7.6 billion dollars to Pakistan. This is five times the quota of Pakistan in the Fund.