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Press Release: 10th July, 2004 According to our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Budget 2004-05 seeks to translate the vision of combining rapid economic growth with faster progress on the road to social equity. The same was sought to be discussed when the XFIN (Finance Association of XIMB, a student body) organized their yearly event, Budget Analysis, yesterday evening at Mayfair Lagoon. Coming just a day after the budget-2004 was announced, the event was a grand success with participation from eminent personalities from the industry, faculty from XIMB, and the students. Sponsoring the event was Nalco and UTI Bank. Keeping with the tradition, the event started with the paper presentation by the students of XIMB, on topics ranging from Agriculture to Manufacturing, Income tax to Turnover tax, giving the audience a brief grounding on the basics of the economic picture of the country. It was aimed at whetting the appetite for the healthy discussion and analysis, which was to follow. The panel consisted of Dr. V. Ranganathan, RBI Chair Professor, Professor of Economics & Coordinator, Economics and Social Science Area & Energy Sector in IIMB; Mr. A. K. Sabath, Director SBI, Orissa circle; Mr. S. Acharya, Advisor, Corporate Affairs, Paradeep Phosphates Ltd; Mr. Debashish Mahapatra, Verve Consulting with Prof. D. V. Ramana moderating the discussion. The panel discussion was started by a brief overview of the budget by the moderator Dr. D. V Ramana. Dr. Ramana began by saying that the budget prepared by the central government is not a corporate budget where the focus is on the bottom line rather it has social, economic, political and other implications and it is not merely a financial exercise i.e. the death of 3000 farmers due to suicides cannot just be ignored. This budget has a major shift of priority from corporate to agriculture. Dr. Ramana emphasized on certain questions, which were to be focused in the discussion like:
Can the budget be termed as "reforms backwards"? Then the ball was thrown to the court of Dr. V. Ranganathan. He began by clarifying what the budget does and what it doesn't do. He said that the budget has two-sides taxation and expenditure. Taxation deals with raising money and expenditure deals with spending it. Budget gives a signal but its effectiveness depends on how the expenditure side is implemented by the government bureaucracy. In expenditure, the government must set its priorities and leave the rest to the market. Contributed by - |
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