Reforms under UPA get a human face

UPA REPORT CARD

This is third in the five-part series on one year of UPA government.

Dabhol Power Project, which is set to get another lease of life, has dogged the reform agenda of the last five governments as they followed a path which has been broadly similar.

While a part of the initiatives in 1991 was on account of the balance of payments crisis, Manmohan Singh as finance minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government can be credited with setting the agenda for successive governments.

Tax rates have been moderated and greater faith in taxpayers is now the norm. Successive governments have left issues like interest rates to be decided by market forces.

The economic recovery process started then, by the government's own admission, was blotched by riots in December 1992 and in January 1993 which affected industrial production, exports and reduced revenue.

Typically, the biggest initiatives have been taken in the first year of the tenure.

The manufacturing sector suffered a decline in production for the first time in a decade in 1991-92. The remedy came in the form of relaxation in the foreign exchange rules and easing of the proverbial inspector raj through the New Industrial Policy of 1991.

The first year of the Rao government also saw irregularities in securities trading which hit investors who had started flocking to the market after the beginning of the reform process. The Securities & Exchange Board of India was set up in 1992 and the trade policy simplified drastically.

The United Front government, a coalition including the Left, which came to power in 1996 went ahead with offloading government stake in public sector companies and constituted the Disinvestment Commission.

Several initiatives on foreign investment, including liberalising the automatic route for foreign equity participation up to 74 per cent in electricity, road construction and pipelines were taken. It also allowed 40 per cent foreign equity in domestic airlines.

A beginning in infrastructure regulation was also made through setting up of the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India. Liberalisation of the telecom sector, which also started during Rao's tenure, lies on the other side of reform spectrum which is cited as a success story by all the reformists in power.

New guidelines for private participation in ports alongwith an independent authority for regulating the tariff at major ports was created.

The deregulation of the banking system, initiated by the Rao government, was continued and more private banks were allowed entry during the first year of the UF government's tenure.

On capital market reforms, the Depositories Act was passed while the new Takeover Code was approved.

Vajpayee's NDA, which came to power soon after in 1998, brought with it the second generation of reforms with initiatives in the infrastructure sector.

Disinvestment was the focus area of the NDA government with a separate department put in place and a cabinet committee constituted.

But successive governments have paid lip service to subsidies and checking fiscal deficit. It is only after the passage of the Fiscal Reforms and Budget Management Act towards the end of the NDA tenure that responsibility has been fixed. The present government notified the rules soon after it assumed office.

Singh's second stint at a political office is seen as one which does not take the NDA brand of reforms ahead but seems to be taking a full circle. Disinvestment is talked about only in the context of throwing past selloffs like Centaur hotel to scrutiny. Reforms have not been said a goodbye.

They now have a human face with liberalisation in foreign investment norms and changes in the patent regime cited as instances of government's attempt at reforms.