No political will for reforms: Economic Survey

New Delhi: The Economic Survey 2016-17 on Tuesday lamented lack of political enthusiasm for ushering in reforms in the country. “Signs of a political dynamic that would banish the ambivalence toward the private sector and property rights have not been strongly evident for decades,” said Economic Survey, which was tabled in Parliament by finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday.

The survey said that this lack of enthusiasm is manifested in the difficulties in advancing strategic disinvestment and taking bold measures to deal with rising loans in industry and bank, which will need bold measures like forgiving some loans to the private sector. It indicated that due to lack of clear political will, protection of intellectual property rights in agriculture like for seeds remain a challenge.

“In the fertiliser sector, where it is proving easier to rehabilitate unviable plants in the public sector rather than facilitate the exit of egregiously inefficient ones; frequent recourse to stock limits and controls on trade in agriculture, which draws upon the antiquated Essential Commodities Act, and creates uncertainty for farmers,” it said.

“There may be valid reasons for the status quo but overall they indicate that the embrace of markets — even in the modest sense of avoiding intrusive intervention, protecting property rights, disposing of unviable public sector assets and exiting from areas of comparative non-advantage, and allowing economic agents to face market prices — remains work-in progress,” said the survey.