We have carefully studid the Manifesto of the Communist Party for the forthcoming general elections. Here is there vision for steering the Indian Economy,
- Support for Enhanced State Intervention – Scrapping the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) Act, raising borrowing limits to allow for higher public expenditure; Increase annual Plan expenditure amounting to 10% of GDP from the current 5%; and Aggressive expansion by Central Public Sector Units (CPSU) utilizing their vast cash reserves.
- Immediate Relief Measures – Specific relief packages for SMEs in textiles and garments, gems & jewelry, leather, software and IT, etc; Moratorium on job cuts; Preventing wage and pay cuts burden of cost cutting to be borne by profit earners; Income tax relief for salaried employees, pensioners and senior citizens; Massive increase in public investment in agriculture and irrigation; and Protection against price crashes of crops
- Taxation and Resource Mobilization – This additional spending will be funded via: Restoring Long-Term Capital Gains Tax and increasing Securities Transaction Tax; Launch a drive to unearth black money, especially those stashed in Swiss Banks; Increase wealth tax for the super rich; introduce inheritance tax; Plug the Mauritius route, and review the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with Mauritius and other countries.
- Financial Sector Regulation – Reversing move towards Full Capital Account Convertibility; Prohibiting P-Notes; Scrapping the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill to prevent takeover of Indian banks by foreign banks; Scrapping proposed legislation to raise FDI in insurance; No privatization of pension funds, no diversion of pension/provident funds to stock market.
- Land Reforms – Reverse the current thrust to dilute land-ceiling laws; Takeover and distribution of all surplus land above ceiling.
- Industrial Development – Strengthening and expansion of the public sector; Complete halt to disinvestment of profit-making
and potentially viable PSUs; Protection of domestic industry from indiscriminate lowering of import duties and takeover of
existing Indian companies by Foreign companies; Prohibition of FDI in retail trade; and Prohibiting export of iron ore and increasing royalty rates on coal and other minerals. - Social Reforms: Provide reservation in the private sector; Public expenditure on education to be 6% of GDP, enacting the Right to Education bill, with Central government the major financial contributor; Public expenditure on health to be raised to 5% of
GDP; All essential drugs to be brought under price control.