Letters: Step toward reform

With reference to "Rail Budget's 92-year-old journey set to end" (August 14), this needs to be seen as part of the reform process which, hopefully, is set to gain momentum with the passing of the goods and service tax (GST) legislation in Parliament. Many components of economic reforms including structural ones in the financial sector, now underway, were getting stalled due to various hurdles, some emanating from the weakness of alliances in power at the Centre and in some larger states.

In recent years planning and budget exercises were reduced to arithmetical jugglery to assess how much resources can be mobilised with ease and how they can then be distributed in a manner that ensures the governments in power remain "popular". Once the Railway Budget is merged with the Union Budget and major taxes get aggregated through the GST, the Centre's responsibility to plan resources and ensure distributive justice across geographies and sectors rises.

Among other things, the Centre will have to ensure: windfall gains are used for investment purposes only; gradually, provisions are made for future liabilities including expected and unexpected heavy expenses which may not be met from "current" revenues; the claims of geographical areas which are not industrially developed and more importantly where literacy level is below the national average should be met; and a price, wage and income policy covering government and private sectors guides the market and employers.

M G Warrier, Mumbai

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