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April 2011

Let’s fast-track the process of subsidy reform

By Raman Jokhakar
Tarunkumar G. Singhal
Chartered Accountants
Reading Time 1 mins
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Society’s less well-off have long been treated as passive wards of the state. This has served as justification for a byzantine subsidy edifice which helps the poor less than it does politicians playing populist cards and babus entrenched as intermediaries in public services delivery. The govern-ment’s move to form a task force to facilitate direct cash transfers to beneficiaries of subsidies like kerosene, LPG, fertilisers, etc., signals fresh, reformist thinking. The panel being led by UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani, there’ll be technical expertise at the top for the job. As also a necessary synergy between the cash transfer and UID endeavours: both aim at better targeting and leak-proofing of redistributive mechanisms via proper identification of the end-users of subsidies.
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