<b>Letters:</b> An innovative Budget

This refers to T N Ninan's column "Nine years later..." (Weekend Ruminations, February 22). With the 2014 general elections approaching, and not much change for the United Progressive Alliance-II in the last one year, the media and economists are not expecting many surprises in the upcoming Union Budget. But the common man continues to hope that the Budget will bring some relief to his mounting woes. From this perspective, the finance minister could factor in some innovative proposals in his Budget speech:

1. Agriculture deserves more attention from planners and policy makers - not just on the eve of the annual Budget. It is a neglected sector, and the government needs to pay attention to farm-sector production, food security and millions of agricultural labourers who cannot migrate to urban areas. It should be projected as a sector that can graduate to a self-supporting stage, viewed from a "business" point of view.
    
2. The finance minister should propose that the super-rich part with a small portion of benefits that they derived from the liberal government policies of recent years. These include:
   
   
   • Steps to price land and other resources "gifted" to corporations and rich individuals under various pretexts at market rates, and plan recovery of costs as and when such "gifts" start giving returns;
      
   • A one-time surcharge on income tax payable by super-rich, and create a rolling fund for financing the social sector;
      
   • According to one assessment, a 10 per cent surcharge on the tax payable by taxpayers, who report an annual income of more than Rs 10 lakh, will fetch Rs 110 crore in a full financial year. A reasonable surcharge on tax payable by this category should be considered.
   
    
3. Abolish the New Pension System (NPS) to absolve employers' commitment to make "matching contributions". As a company's financial position improves, employers should create pension funds to honour future commitments. Simultaneously, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation should be strengthened, and the scheme made more popular.
    
4. Stop subsidising interest rates on loans for any purpose, including agriculture, beyond reasonable levels. Kerala has come out with zero-interest rate short-term agricultural loans. If the states do this on their own in such a way, they introduce disincentives.

M G Warrier Thiruvananthapuram

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