UNION FINANCE MINISTER SAID FURTHER :-

QUOTE : The third challenge relates to the weakness in government system, structurs and institutions at different levels of governence. Indeed, in the coming years, if there is one factor that can hold us back in realising our potential as a modern nation, it is the bottleneck of our public delivery mechanisms. There have been many initiatives in this regard, in different sectors, at different points of time. Some of them hve been effective in reforming the way the Government works in those areas. But we have a long way to go before we can rest on this count. The Union Budget cannot be a mere statment of Government accounts. It has to reflect the Government’s vision and signal the policies to come in future. With development and economic reforms, the focus of economic activity hs shifted towards the non-governmental actors, bringing into sharper focus the role pf Government as an enabler. An enabling government does not try to deliver directy to the citizens everything that they need. Instead it creates an enabling ethos so that individual enterprise and creativity can flourish. Government concentrates on supporting and delivering services to the disadvantaged sections of the society. It is this broad conceptualisation of the Budget that informs my speech today. UNQUOTE

[for full text of FM speech, please visit http://www.taxesinindia.com  ]

FINANCE MINISTER SPEECH

[EDITOR's note: It takes many decades for the Finance Minister to discover the WEAKNESS in Government systems, structures and institutions. BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.]

VENKATRAMAN RAGGHUPATHY, Web admin.

FINANCE MINISTER SPEECH governance, weakness in government systems. structures and institutions