JOIN USMake in India is more of event management: PC
Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ scheme, former finance minister P Chidambaram said that the scheme, as of now, is more of event management.
“Make in India is aimed at boosting the manufacturing sector. But as of now, it seems more of event management. Just look at the recent interview of UCO Bank Chairman, where he said that there is no demand for credit in the manufacturing sector,” said Chidambaram at a panel discussion during the 11th international conference on Public Policy and Management at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
The chairman of UCO Bank, in a recent interview, had said that there is no demand for credit, at least in the manufacturing and the core sectors and there are no fresh investments.
He also defended the ‘interference’ of government in the RBI policies, which D Subbarao had mentioned in his book ‘Who Moved My Interest Rates’.
“Intelligent people don’t agree on everything. To think so, it is naïve and I would say, if they do, they are stupid. But at the end of the day, it is not the RBI or the Sebi that are answerable to people. I would say at the end of the day, the buck stops at the government’s table. There was complete agreement between the government and the RBI on various issues, partial on some, complete disagreement on others,” he said.
He blamed the then Fed Reserve chief Ben Bernake’s remark of “getting done with quantitative easing” on the steep fall of the rupee in 2013. Calling it a “taper tantrum”, Chidambaram said, “That remark by Ben Bernake was completely thoughtless.”
No agreement on GST rate
On the GST tax rate, he said, “I think it is clear that there is lack of clarity about what the GST rate will be. There is no agreement as far as I can see, and I am not making a judgemental statement. As far as I can see, there are serious differences between the economics department and the revenue department. There are serious differences between the union government and the state finance ministers. I don’t think they are anywhere near any agreement about what the standard rate should be, and if you don't reach an agreement on the standard rate, they cannot fix the band rates. So, there is a lot of work to be done.”