Reimbursing billionaires

The finance ministry's invitation to India's billionaires, including Mukesh Ambani and Kumar Mangalam Birla, for a pre-budget meeting is making everyone laugh. The reason: the invitation promises to reimburse air fare (economy class only) and Rs 1,500 towards local and incidental expenses. For Delhi-based billionaires, the invitation promises Rs 1,000 for transport. Almost every Mumbai businessman invited by the ministry is expected to take his own aircraft for the meeting to New Delhi, so it would be interesting to know whether industrialists will actually take the air fare reimbursement offer paid for by the taxpayer.