Ahead of the Magnetic Maharashtra investment summit starting this Sunday, the State Industries Minister Subhash Desai has termed some of the investment pacts signed at the Vibrant Gujarat investor summits as ‘laughable’ as they even included agreements signed by the State government with its own departments to build public facilities.
“I had a look at Gujarat’s website. I was astonished. They have signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with their own departments. For example, Women & Child Welfare department of Gujarat signed an MoU to construct some thousand anganwadis. Now what is the use [of doing that]?” Mr. Desai asked.
“Even we can do that, may be (sign pacts) with the education, power or any other department. And that department’s Budget could be shown as the investment. Maharashtra does not do such laughable MoUs... We are into serious investments,” the minister stressed. “It could be Vibrant Gujarat or Karnataka. These States claim to sign MoUs but do not see the investment materialising on the ground and nobody even enquires (about them) after the event,” said Mr. Desai.
Budget blues
Mr. Desai said the Budget’s farm focus reflects the the Gujarat election results on the Narendra Modi government as this could be the last Budget before the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
“The way BJP received drubbing in rural areas of Gujarat, it is clear that rural area was on BJP’s priority list this time. But these benefits should reach farmers,” he said. “The Finance Minister did mention about giving one-and-a-half times returns on farmers’ input costs. But nobody knows when will it be seen on ground, whether it will be from this year or the next year?” he asked.
Complex taxation
Mr. Desai said the tax on long term capital gains in equities will hurt middle class savings and the gains touted from the Goods and Services Tax implementation are yet to be visible as it has too many complexities.
“No tax system should be complex. It leads to people finding ways to duck it. It has to be simple. One thing is sure, the income we had expected from the GST is nowhere to be found. We are not reaching the set target,” he said.
“People opted for mutual funds for investments and now the government is taxing it. There is no clarity in policy, it keeps on changing. I don’t understand what they are trying to achieve,” said Mr Desai.
