In the context of the Union Budget for 2015-16, the concern of the people of Odisha is different from the rest of India, as the same is conditioned by localised deficiencies and needs. Rajiv Gandhi had removed the onerous estate duty, and this Government has been wise enough to abolish the wealth tax, the cost of collection of which was more than the tax collected. This loss is meant to be matched by the surcharge placed on the so-called higher income group.
For a State like Odisha with a nature-endowed coal reserve, there has naturally been a traditional overemphasis on thermal power. Hydropower has remained neglected over years. The national Budget does not provide adequate incentives and fiscal push for causing investments in alternate and renewable sources of energy. These areas are still virgin in Odisha and need to be tapped without any further delay.
The Union Budget, while giving some marginal reduction in Central excise, does not envisage a policy for MSME though this is a vital sector in States like Odisha. This sector is neglected both by the Centre and the State. The MSME Act envisages certain beneficiary provisions favouring MSMEs, but the institutions responsible to translate them into action, e.g., banks, etc., as a matter of course, ignore these benefits and deny the same, very often rendering MSME units unviable. The national Budget could have been more vocal and purposive in this direction.
The gold monetisation policy, we are told, will come somewhere around May 2015. This requires to be hastened and, if possible, preponed. Apart from India being the fourth largest consumer in gold, in a State like Odisha, there is still a dominant propensity to invest in gold.
This is conditioned by the faith of the poor and the middle classes in gold as a safe investment. Additionally, gold provides a convenient avenue for investment of unaccounted and black money. It is difficult to explain the highest concentration of shops dealing with gold in the arterial road of Bhubaneswar, which is the capital of the poorest State of the country. This apparent oddity hides behind it the availability of plenty of black money and the preference of the black money holder for gold as a safe investment.
Whereas the Central Budget gives emphasis on housing for all, there is a conspicuous absence of a complementary supporting housing policy. Such a policy ought to be inclusive of provision of land and other facilities, the financing of the projects and the facilities for the homeless to be able to buy units in such projects. Striking a discordant note, housing loans have become costlier.
According to available reports, houses worth Rs25,000 crores are in different stages of construction in Bhubaneswar and its neighbouring areas. Reports further indicate that about 30 per cent of the houses remain unsold and the budget makes it more onerous for the buyer to invest in such assets. All these taken together are bound to make the real estate and housing market look for further innovative measures to get around the law. Such techniques are bound to be against the interest of the house buyers. Certainly, this cannot be the objective of any policy of the State or the Central Government in this regard.
Pathetically, Konark, the 13th-Century architectural marvel, has been receiving inadequate conservation measures. The Sun Temple is missing from the nine historic sites, for which the Finance Minister announced a special package. This needs to be remedied by effective intervention by the Government and people of Odisha.
Jaundice, swine flu and other epidemics are on the increase in the State of Odisha. Preemptive healthcare to prevent such ugly epidemics is an unavoidable requirement. Special provision in this regard can be justified by the State for obtaining additional funds from the Central Government.
The only silver lining in the Budget is that Odisha gets an elite science institute in the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research. Predictably, the site and location of the institute are bound to create controversies in our State, as the Institute of Management case amply demonstrates.
We are yet to understand that creation of islands of activity in an otherwise backward area do not necessarily bring about a change in the economic status of the area as such. This has been amply demonstrated by the Rourkela Steel Plant having been where it is over half a century, but the adjoining areas have not developed despite the location of the steel plant as such.
The most disturbing factor for the middleclass and the poorer sections in the Budget is the increase in the service tax with a further addition of a surcharge for Swachchh Bharat. The increase in the rate of the service taxes, which cover a very wide net, is bound to affect the vulnerable sections in a very adverse manner.
Additionally, the cost of petroleum, diesel, etc., has also gone up. The cumulative impact on services and goods of common requirement will become pinchingly costlier. This is bound to displease the middleclass, which has supported the BJP at the Centre because of its own aspirations. The hopes and aspirations of this class will be adversely affected and would contribute towards its alienation from the ruling party.
Constraints of time and space prevent one from going into further details of the impact of the budget in the context of a State like Odisha. What are indicated hereinbefore are definitely relevant points to ponder over and require to be debated so as to build adequate pressure on the Governments to see these anomalies in their appropriate perspectives.
It is time the neglect of certain vital sectors and areas became matters of public debate in States like Odisha leading to appropriate articulation of the genuine grievances so as to be further effective in causing the necessary alterations and rectifications to the proposed and existing policies. This calls for involvement of the affected persons, the professionals dealing with such subject matters and social activists who should carry the message to the grassroots for increasing the awareness in this regard so as to eventually formulate an effective public opinion.
The initiative in this regard has to come from the leaders amongst professionals. As professional leaders are found not to be taking sufficient interest in this regard, this calls for an awakening of and actions by the concerned citizens. Unfortunately, the institutions of learning are immune and unresponsive to the proposals of the Budget and the policies pursued by the Governments. They have to receive a wakeup call to discharge their social obligations and not be hide-bound by the misdirected past. They must express their valuable views, and there are (and cannot be) any restrictions on them in this regard. The actions in this regard can only be delayed at our cost and to our peril. And this certainly concerns us all!
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of the Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)