- Home
- Columnists
- Uttam Gupta

Uttam Gupta

Giving a safe passage to delinquent SEZs
Development of Enterprise and Service Hubs (DESH) bill, gives a ‘safe passage’ to all those SEZ units that haven’t been able to fulfil their export commitments The government is planning to make a few amendments to the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Act 2005 in the winter session of Parliament, with a...
-
NPAs: Setting the record straight
18 November 2023 | Uttam Gupta -
Has free ration become a political compulsion?
15 November 2023 | Uttam Gupta -
Sanctions on Russia are counterproductive
08 November 2023 | Uttam Gupta -
Aim at a tax-to-GDP ratio of 20 per cent
31 October 2023 | Uttam Gupta -
Rethink rationale for food subsidy
21 October 2023 | Uttam Gupta -
State doles can put discoms at risk
18 October 2023 | Uttam Gupta -
Solving the public stockholding riddle
11 October 2023 | Uttam Gupta

Rationalise taxes on fertilisers
The cost of making fertilisers available to farmers by itself is substantially higher than the price the Govt wants them to pay, ideally, it should not levy any tax In its report laid in Parliament on August 9, 2023, the Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers has recommended that the Union...

Regulatory boost to self-sufficiency in energy
Modi Government is giving considerable policy support for the exploration of hydrocarbons so that investors can earn assured return on their investments Delivering the 75th Independence Day address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the country a target to achieve self-reliance in energy production by boosting the gas-based economy (besides giving a...

Simultaneous polls are the way forward
Frequent elections impose enormous social and economic costs on the nation, which leads to corruption and disruption The Union Government has set up a committee under the chairmanship of the former President of India, Ramnath Govind to examine holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha (LS), state assemblies, panchayats and other...

Time for 100 per cent FDI in retail sector
One hundred per cent Foreign Direct Investment should be permitted to all retailers, online or offline, big or small, for the growth of this sector During discussions with representatives of e-commerce firms and a domestic traders' body viz. Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) held on August 2, 2023, the Department...

LPG subsidy will hurt the exchequer
The price cut especially for non-ujjwala beneficiaries was avoidable. It will serve no purpose and will be a drain on already strained oil companies For several decades, it has been a common practice for governments to make decisions based on political expediency ignoring economic considerations. The incumbent Modi – dispensation has...

‘Indigenous’ fertilisers must be explored
The government must pursue indigenous sources of fertiliser raw materials to minimise India’s vulnerabilities on imports The enactment of two laws viz. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2023 and the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2023 in the just concluded monsoon session of the...

Off-budget borrowings are unhealthy in nature
The Union Government wants to ‘pre-pay’ the remaining off-budget borrowings of Rs 170,000 crore over a reasonable period of time Off-budget borrowings or extra-budgetary resources (EBRs) - as these are called in budget parlance — are those borrowings that are raised by public sector undertakings (PSUs) and other agencies of the...