'I feel sorry for Sinha'

K Mahesh

The Budget is an exercise the government does every year. Just like a company has a budget every year. I would like to leave it at that. See, a company cannot look at the Budget to do its corporate planning.

But I can tell you that we are looking at 2005, where we believe that import duty will be between 5 per cent and 10 per cent. So, we are working towards 2005.

Is there anything new about the 5 per cent growth rate? In India, we become either euphoric or very depressed. I don’t think there is any reason for either of these. See, year before last, we had fantastic results. It was unusual. It will not happen again. We will go back to the Hindu rate of growth.

Hoping for 7-8 per cent growth rate has been a wish since the last few years. I think it was when Kumar was the president of the CII that it had a slogan: 8 per cent growth! That was four years ago. I said fine and kept quiet. Now they are again talking about it. So what do you do? Just keep quiet again.

Tell me where is the 8 per cent growth that they are talking about going to come from? What has the industry done to achieve 8 per cent growth? Indian industry wants the government to keep on feeding them.

Has anything happened to the promised infrastructure spending and downsizing of the government? Nothing. Okay, you have done some divestments. But they are only nibbling at the fringes. There is so much to be done. We are stuck in the margin.

I feel the government is working with both its hands tied behind. Now, Shiv Sena is against implementing the labour laws. In my opinion, the last Budget was a good one but then it was nullified by a whole series of problems like the UTI scam, the Tehelka expose, Ketan Parekh, etc, etc….

I feel the initial reactions on the Budget will be different from the later ones because you will later have amendments and sub sections which take the whole thing out of the Budget.

I feel sorry for Sinha. His hands are really tied. Only politics plays a role in these exercises and nothing else. Who is bothered about the country? We have been taken for a ride for several years and we will continue to be, for a few more years.

Everybody has been talking about investments, infrastructure spending, etc for a long time. We are great debaters. We keep on talking. Why do we get worked up about the Budget? It is one of the exercises, which we have to do to balance the income against the expenditure.

It is another matter that the various governments have not been able to do so. We keep on ending up in deficit.

I don’t see any logic in the functioning of the stock market, industry or the government. So, I am very pessimistic about the whole exercise. I think the whole Budget exercise is a farce. I am a cynic. See, I have been an industrialist for 37 years, and I think I have every right to be cynical!

K Mahesh is the chairman and managing director of the Sundaram Brake Lining Ltd, this year's winner of the prestigious Deming Prize. He spoke to Shobha Warrier.

YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:
The Rediff Budget Special
The Rail Budget 2002-03
The Economic Survey 2001-02
Run-Up To The Budget
Money