Tax reform need not focus merely on tax slabs and the nature of the laws governing taxation. It can, indeed it must, also look at the decision-making processes and the incentives governing those in charge of tax assessment. One good indication of the maladministration at work in this branch of the government is the overall number of tax orders that are eventually taken to be adjudicated to the tax appellate tribunals, and thenceforth to the high courts and the Supreme Court.

Taxation, not litigation

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On Thursday, Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily said that the government had decided to allow the oil marketing companies to raise the price of diesel in small amounts, in order to reduce the losses OMCs make on selling the refined fuel. Those losses, or &ldquo;under-recoveries&rdquo;, are of course eventually covered partly by the central government, and are the most potent contributor to India&rsquo;s problems with its fiscal deficit. It has been known for a long time that the first step towards fiscal consolidation, and thus to healthy public finances and a more stable macroeconomy, was to decrease the subsidy amount spent on diesel. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has dithered too long on diesel. It was agreed, in principle, that deregulation should happen in mid-2010, when petrol was deregulated, and the prime minister has been calling for it in public since this time last year at least. But that the decision has finally been taken is nevertheless welcome.

Well begun, half done

That the Indian bureaucracy finds it difficult to shake off its micro-management of the economy more than 20 years into economic reform is a given. But even by its own standards, the recent move by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to launch an enquiry into the on-time performance, or OTP, of airlines touches new heights of interference. The enquiry is not the result of concern for passengers on account of delayed flights, which should ordinarily concern an industry regulator. Amazingly, it is quite the opposite. The DGCA wants to know how some airlines, using the same aircraft as other airlines on a given route, take a shorter time to reach their destinations. It claims that airlines are breaching a DGCA stipulation that the difference between the maximum and minimum time on a particular route should not be more than 10 minutes. The airline industry regulator is purportedly concerned that the actual difference can be as much as 30 minutes.

Out of time

The latest office memorandum of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) talks of rescheduling a meeting that was slated for January 18. Although the text of the memo says the new date and time would be conveyed later, the header gives it away: &ldquo;Postponement notice for 186th meeting to be held now on 24th January&rdquo;. Clearly, it&rsquo;s a hurried job. Now all eyes will be on the January 24 meeting that is expected to take up the Swedish furniture company IKEA&rsquo;s proposal. IKEA&rsquo;s application was withdrawn from the FIPB agenda at the December 31 meeting, since the finance ministry sought clarifications from the company on many issues. The matter was not listed for the January 18 meeting either but the company is expected to complete the paperwork well before the January 24 meeting.

Head first

US President Barack Obama, in the wake of the Newtown school shooting massacre, has launched the biggest US gun-control push in generations. He has taken 23 executive decisions he intends to take immediately without Congressional approval. These include improving the existing system for background checks, lifting the ban on federal research on gun violence, putting more counsellors and &quot;resource officers&quot; in schools and better access to mental health services. He has also urged Congress to renew a prohibition on assault weapons sales that expired in 2004, require criminal background checks on all gun purchases and pass a new federal gun trafficking law - long sought by big-city mayors to keep out-of-state guns off their streets.

Arms and the US

Pakistan&rsquo;s failure to grant India Most Favoured Nation status appears to have a less sinister reason than beheadings and aggression along the Line of Control. It is rooted in the nuances of language. Most Favoured Nation, a common trade term in English, translates into sabse pasindida mulk in Urdu, which can also loosely be interpreted to mean India is Pakistan&rsquo;s favourite nation. Obviously, India can never be projected as Pakistan&rsquo;s favourite in an official government document, hence the delay in the interests of finding a more neutral term.

MFN lost in translation

The finance minister&rsquo;s pre-Budget meeting with India Inc this week was attended by current heads of all industry chambers, except PHD Chamber of Commerce of Industry (PHDCCI). PHDCCI was represented by its past President Sandip Somany, instead of current President Suman Jyoti Khaitan. It is learnt the finance ministry sent the invitation to Somany who was replaced by Khaitan in December. Apparently, the chamber requested the ministry to send the invitation in the name of their new president but the ministry chose not to do so.

Lots in a name

US capitalism has been known to be aggressive and fiercely dogmatic but the recent episode of American International Group (AIG) has also exposed its unabashed ingratitude. It has been almost five years since AIG&rsquo;s stock dropped 60 per cent in a day, leaving the company tottering. The US Treasury rescued it with a $182 billion backup. Hence, the news that the multinational insurance company wants to sue the US government over the bailout shows its short memory. On September 16, 2008, AIG&rsquo;s share prices had fallen over 95 per cent to just $1.25 from a 52-week high of $70. There was no cash for the next day&rsquo;s critical trading. The Treasury arranged for a loan of $15 billion overnight, after AIG physically carried share certificates of matching value to the government vault.

Letters: Lessons from the past

This refers to Sreelatha Menon&rsquo;s column &ldquo;Faithfully yours&rdquo; (Ear to the ground, January 13). It might be the responsibility of the government to eradicate poverty and create better living conditions for citizens but adopting and funding social causes by those who can afford to will surely do immense good to the society. While it is perfectly in order to make donations towards religious causes, individuals and corporate houses need to contribute towards overall social good.

Letters: Donate for social good

This refers to the editorial &ldquo;Crossing a red line&rdquo; (January 15). The criticism of the media, particularly the electronic media, with regard to the coverage of the recent military tensions across the border is timely. News channels, in order to increase the number of viewers, forget that business considerations cannot ignore limits of reason, and that whipping up people&rsquo;s emotions is a double-edged weapon. But the truth is that whether it is relations with Pakistan or Bangladesh, India needs to learn the art of showing firmness &mdash; without being arrogant. Of course, it is always a tough balancing exercise, with no success guaranteed for any particular approach.

Letters: Be tough on Pakistan

It won't just impact your daily commute bill. The diesel price hike will most likely have a chain effect that will inflate the prices of almost everything that you consume -- milk, fruits and vegetables, electricity, clothes -- you name it. Worse, the oil PSUs now have the liberty to hike prices periodically, adding further to your woes. How are you going to manage your monthly household bills and other expenses going forward. Share your thoughts with us.

How will you manage your finances in the face of the diesel price hike?

The markets have greeted the results of India&rsquo;s two information technology leaders, TCS and Infosys, with a degree of added enthusiasm, which may not be fully deserved. Infosys has done better than otherwise would have been the case. This is because it is recognising for the first time the gains from the acquisition of Lodestone. This is not a fortuitous event and the firm is fully entitled to take credit for its action whose positives will continue to flow over time.

IT leaders please

The annual royalty that McDonald&rsquo;s Indian franchisee will pay to the US-headquartered fast-food company is all set to go up from three per cent of net sales now to eight per cent by 2020. Ever since the government liberalised the royalty rules in 2010, there has been a sharp increase in payouts to foreign collaborators. An analysis by this newspaper of 75 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange shows that royalty payments more than trebled between 2007-08 and 2011-12, though sales grew 80 per cent and net profit a little over 30 per cent. Proxy advisory firm Institutional Investors Advisory Services says that while the money remitted by the top three royalty-paying companies &ndash; Maruti Suzuki, ABB and Nestle India &ndash; jumped over three times from Rs 784 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 2,495 crore in 2011-12, their collective revenue increased only 1.8 times.

Due to royalty 

Narendra Modi and his bureaucrats may be extremely happy that the Vibrant Gujarat Summit of 2013 beat the earlier edition in terms of footfalls. Over 1.6 million people visited the summit at Mahatma Mandir and the trade shows at Helipad Ground in Gandhinagar this year compared to 700,000 people who visited the 2011 event. But foreign delegates seemed to be at a loss. Henk Schouten, general manager of Schouten Europe, which makes &ldquo;chicken-look-alike&rdquo; vegetarian snacks, was in town looking for an Indian partner. He barely managed to meet anybody relevant. &ldquo;There are so many people here. Families with kids all over the place. I am at a loss. I couldn&rsquo;t meet many relevant people for my business,&rdquo; Schouten said, adding &ldquo;they should charge an entry fee for the summit&rdquo;. The suggestion, however, is unlikely to go down well with Modi who is likely to want to beat this year&rsquo;s footfall at the next event.

Vibrant footfalls in Gujarat

Doctors leaving patients to the mercy of God is a common scene in films, but in Chhattisgarh, medical practitioners actually subjected themselves to the benevolence of the supreme being for real. The problem arose over eye camps organised by the state government and social organisations. In October 2011, more than two dozen people went blind after contracting infections following mass cataract surgery at one such camp. In December last year, 15 people suffered a similar fate. Clearly, the hygiene in these camps left much to be desired, but this fact does not appear to have occurred to the supervising ophthalmologists. Instead, they have decided to perform a havan &mdash; not for their patients but for themselves to overcome the problems they face.

An eye for God's mercy

Low-cost tablets are meant to help poor students do better at academics but it has now become a popular freebie to attract voters &mdash; or so more and more politicians seem to think. First it was Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Now, Food Minister K V Thomas thought fit to recently distribute free tablets to students from his constituency. Clearly, the old attractions of cheap rice are pass&eacute; &mdash; even for the food minister.

Tablets: a dose for votes

Being the premier educational institutions, IITs need to be independent and sustainable. The tuition fee is paid only by about 50 per cent of the under-graduate students exempting SC/ST students and all other students who have an annual parental income less than Rs 4.5 lakh.

Student's corner

This refers to Rajiv Kumar&rsquo;s article &ldquo;Taxing the super-rich is lazy policy&rdquo; (January 15). Taxing the super-rich will reduce investment by the private sector and increase evasion. The Hindu rate of growth coincided with the period when the income tax rate was far too high. John Maynard Keynes famously said the marginal propensity to consume of the super-rich is zero. They invest 100 per cent of their extra income. But in the case of the government, the marginal propensity to consume is quite high. It consists of (a) cost of collection, (b) bureaucratic waste owing to not knowing where to invest, (c) waste in unsustainable projects, (d) uncontrolled expenditure in populist projects (e) greater propensity to increase subsidy when more money is available, and so on. What remains, that is the net amount, is much less than what a private investor would have invested. The government is much less efficient as an entrepreneur than the private investor.

Letters: Super-tax on the super-rich

The Rail Budget will be presented in over a month from now. Most railway ministers take populist decisions by introducing new trains &mdash; a good number of them to or passing through those constituencies or states to which they belong. But the need of the hour is to not introduce any new train, since the trunk routes are overstretched. This is resulting in most trains running behind their scheduled time at intermediate stations, except perhaps at important junctions because of the large cushion provided in the time-table. The cargo movement carrying essential goods like coal and petroleum is also hampered by innumerable halts to make way for passenger trains. The railway minister, inter alia, should ensure that more funds are provided for replacing worn-out rolling stock. Sufficient funds also need to be allocated for the employment of more Railway Protection Force personnel to make rail travel safe for the public, particularly for women.

Letters: Hopes from the Rail Budget

&ldquo;Industrial houses have a proven track record and an experienced team at the helm.

Should industrial houses be given bank licences?

The government has finally declared what action it intends to take on the General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR), which were announced with much fanfare in the last Budget and prompted widespread concern among investors. A committee headed by Parthasarathi Shome, now an advisor in the finance ministry, had gone into GAAR and come out with several recommendations, many of which have been accepted by the government and others that have been slightly modified.

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