Rocks & hard places

Finance ministry officials are puzzled. Before the Budget was tabled in Parliament on March 16, the government was under attack from the Opposition for not being tough enough when it came to tackling black money. In the Budget, the finance ministry proposed several measures to do just that but it still came under attack, though from a different quarter — industry and investors. Finance ministry officials can understand this but were unable to figure out why the same journalists who were criticising the government for not doing enough were now critical of the stringent actions prescribed in the Budget.