Budget

A short post but RC hits the nail on the head,

I watched several champions of industry perform on TV yesterday. They were each discussing what they want from the budget. Some wanted excise cuts, others extension of various holidays, still others wanted license fees cuts, one of them even suggested that some two-wheelers be moved into the “merit list” because sales was dull. Not one, not even one, said “Just give us enough electricity and good roads to the nearest port or railhead. Leave us alone, in turn we will pay fair taxes”

And Offstumped publishes a letter from a farmer to the finance minister,

Knowing that you have an economist in Dr. Manmohan Singh for a Prime Minister and you yourself have been marketed in the media as being reform oriented, I started to wonder if you are wooing us to make us farmers competitive and look beyond merely sustainable farming. So I looked up your speech and found rather interestingly that none of the references to “sustainable” were with reference to agriculture. I also found it interesting that the words “sustainability”, “competitive” or “competitiveness” find no mention in your entire speech.