File it, shut it, forget it

Government officials have a file for almost everything, but that doesn’t mean they read all that’s in it. When the media reported the Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s (CAG’s) extensive study on the deficiencies of the Value Added Tax regime (“Implementation of VAT in India — lessons for transition to GST”) on Monday, frantic finance ministry officials called up the CAG’s office asking for copies of the study to be urgently sent to the ministry, so that the findings could be studied and, if need be, implemented. It turned out that the study had been sent to the finance minister on June 29 along with a cover letter highlighting the main findings. The finance minister probably marked the letter to the secretary concerned who, in all probability, marked it to his junior ... To paraphrase from the advertisement highlighting the fuel economy of a leading motorcycle company, file it, shut it, forget it.