SARVATMANIRBHAR BUDGET NEEDED

-Shashidhar.S. Kapur

•As Nirmala Sitharaman said about 2021 union budget M.P. Budget too has to a Game Changer given the COVID context. However given that GST has taken away maximum the leverage of taxation , state governments rely on Petroleum , Mining , Electricity and real estate for most parts .Moreover , there is the route for market borrowing. All of these have limits even in best of times and severe limitations in Covid years. Thus these unusual circumstances call for an unusual approach . Ideally, Government must go for maximizing PPP ( purchasing power Parity) – by reductions in petroleum prices, Registry, Electricity ,public transport ,voice data-while trying to compensate by some of the following :

• Sell the Family silver – Release as much of the encroached government land as possible and sell govt. Properties / shares…viz. Shares in MPT hotels ..A target of 5K cr. has been kept – it ought to be at least doubled.

P.S.: However care should be take to use these funds for specific and not routine/ general purposes- you do no sell family silver to throw a party viz. funds from selling MPT shares ought o be used for expanding tourism only.

•Sell the Kidneys.- Increase Mining , lease out agro forestry to private players etc.

P.S. : Ensure that funds are reinvested specifically in the same sectors.

•Crowd funding- Enable villages to maximize liquidity by mortgaging houses- using Swamitva scheme.-thereby encouraging PPP in villages too.
P.S. : Do so after educating masses about possible debt traps – in any case put a cap of installments less than 50% of monthly income.

•Long term investment in Human resources
P.S.: Use the lack of mega funds to maximize training / upskilling of all human resources (Police training deptt.. has already done it) viz. Sending school teachers to S. Korea ; Farmers to train in Punjab etc. Enhanced productivity will more than compensate for temporary loss in production

•Expenditure coupons
P.S : Some sort of time bound expenditure coupons need to be introduced – even if only to government employees- to kick in demand.

•Urban Employment scheme –
P.S .: Must differentiate between jobs and employment ; provide part time jobs ; kick in gig economy.

•Yuva Samman Nidhi
P.S to the ions un employable : Overqualified or underskilled give a Token Yuva Samman Nidhi.

•Serial cost cutting – Top down
P.S :Cost cutting should begin from top down not the other way down of witholding dues of contractual workers.

•Renovation
P.S : Lack of funds may not permit building too many roads , schools (Rising CM schools is bad idea at this point) , colleges but a lot of renovation and expansion is possible in the existing one- add new rooms , facilities ,staff ; carry out mega repairs.

* Maximise Health spend.
P.S: By all means give priority to health but not to Building Hospitals alone ; in matching ratio the human resources be enhanced esp. Par medic staff and upgrading the existing facilities maximized. Moreover – The Immunity building programme must be continued.

• Supporting as many grassroots entrepreneurs as possible :Start ups , stand –ups , SHG’s …If medical colleges can have attached hospitals , Engineering colleges/ Polytechnics too may have attached startup/stand up incubation centres.

P.S. : Atmanirbhar will not work without Swavalambi.

•Export incentivisation- not merely exports to other countries but other states too.
P.S : Vocal for local will work only upto a point- wherever local products are comparable/ best in price and quality ; By incentivizing those sending their products to farthest markets- places and classes – a truly GLOCAL approach may be aimed.

•Encash the cleanliness image – to invest heavily in Waste management recycling ;(Incl E-waste ) , Scrapping .
P.S : Import waste from all over .- Neighbouring states in particular; Kabaad Se Juggad ; recycle and reproduce. Encash Carbon rating points.

•Facilitate immigration- Madhya Pradesh’s biggest export perhaps is its labour force ( esp. unskilled) .Organising their placement , building transit hostels for them in bordering states , free travel etc. may help.
P.S. : It shouldn’t be seen as a waste …Reduction in social costs , welfare bill and likely remittances will more than make up for it.

•Tap the share market- Encourage all the local bodies to enlist at the stock exchange and exhort local residents to buy shares.
P.S ; Ought to be done under expert advice- keeping in mind the

volatility of Post corona market.
* Some kind of Revenue sharing with Data providers as well as users.
P.S: While providing cheap/ free voice data , try and monetize video data.
Overall : As the previous budget was not presented in detail , Kamalnath’s achievements got brushed under the carpet. Subsequently merging Planning board in to school of governance has made accountability opaque ; likewise, no specifics are given on 33K crores borrowed from market in 10 months of Corona – not to speak of the money saved on housekeeping. Even then the Economic survey ,presented at the last hour paints a harrowing picture –GDP down by nearly 4 %; per capita slipped by 5 thousand rupees, unemployed stand at around 25 lakhs , Mining has dipped by 16 %;MSME output down by 4% ; only electricity revenues show a 14% upswing…Reality is likely to be worse – informal figures hint at a dip of more than 5%, more than 40 Lakh unemployed and the dip in mining despite overdigging due to illegal activity , revenue loss in liquour over 200 cr. too due to spurious hooch; electricity revenue jump may be misleading- it may be due to abolition of free / 100 rupees electricity upto 100 units scheme ; real indicator would be the level of consumption…The entire budgeting needs a procedural change…Main budget ought to be for predictable stuff and supplementary only for unpredictable (viz. agriculture )…A slip at this point can make it a nightmare budget.
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BENCHMARKING.
* Covid Context
* In view of Shivraj Roadmap
* In view of Kamalnath Vision
* Atmanirbhar context
* Vocal for Local context.
* In view of doubling farmers’ income by 2022
* Housing for all by 2022
* Tap water for all by 2022.
* In view o f the current situational Indices
*In vie w of the intellgencies of people
* In view of 5 trillion economy of the centre
* In view of increasing economic activity potential
* In view of PPP- Improving Purchasing power parity
* Employment raising/ Job creation
* In the context of comparable states- esp. other BJP states
* In the context of bordering states

Benchmarks for Covid.
•Number of people infected ?
•No. of Tests ?
•Rise in deaths ?
•How many people fell below poverty line ?
•Rise in crimes ?
•School dropout rate – esp. female students ?
•Rise in illegal Mining ?
•Rise in suicides ?

•Increase in number of hospitals
•Increase in number of pharma .
•Increase in medical equipment
•Increase in para medical personnel.