Best of BS Opinion: Open-ended tariff protection, low interest rates & more

Here's a selection of Business Standard opinion pieces for the day

The government is reportedly planning to introduce a sunset date for tariff protection in various industries. In this context, our lead editorial notes that this would make it clear to all manufacturers that they will face more competition from a specific date, which hopefully would force them to become competitive. Open-ended protection would affect competitiveness and potential growth in the medium to long run. Read here
 

Other opinion pieces talk about Covid, interest rates, and auction of resources.
 

If India has peaked once, it must maintain the flattened trajectory of the Covid curve. Neither the economy nor the healthcare system would be able to deal with another peak. The next few weeks would be a big test for both state administrative agencies and citizens in general, argues our second editorial
 

It is one thing to lower interest rates for borrowers through a reduction in the big interest margin that banks keep in India and another to lower interest rates through the RBI. We are stressing too much on the latter and not worrying adequately about the former, writes Gurbachan Singh
 

The auctioning of publicly held resources is welcome as it ensures transparency and reduces the scope for corruption. But auctions must be designed to serve the common good, as required by the Constitution, and have clear safeguards against collusion and manipulation, writes Nitin Desai

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“It is really unfortunate that the Centre is unable to pay GST compensation to states. To add to our woes, it is asking the RBI to debit money from the state’s consolidated fund.” 

Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren