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Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman (centre) & team: Capex, MSMEs and skilling focus

Unlike Mr. Micawber (David Copperfield) who dreaded frequently require allocations from the budget to keep them
fiscal deficits (“annual income twenty pounds, annual ex- afloat.
penditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happi- However for ideological and personal aggrandisement
ness; annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure and profit of the neta-babu brotherhood, PSEs which should
twenty pounds naught and six, result misery”), govern- have been denationalised decades ago don’t contribute sig-
ments don’t fear debtors prison. In Union Budget 2024-25, nificant income to the Centre. Therefore, government has to
the fiscal deficit of the Central government is estimated at borrow from the market and abroad as a result of which its
Rs.16.13 lakh crore, welcomed almost unanimously because annual accumulated interest payout burden has spiralled to
it is on a “downward glide path” (4.9 percent of GDP cf. 5.6 Rs.11.62 lakh crore (2024-25) and contributes significantly
percent in 2023-24), and declining deficits contain infla- to the Central government’s fiscal deficit.
tion. This despite a separate ministry of disinvestment/ priva-
To its credit the Central government intends to substan- tisation of PSEs having been established in 1999. In Union
tially augment its revenue/income in 2024-25 by 15 percent budget 2024-25 the revenue (including capital receipts)
to Rs.31.29 lakh crore from 27.28 lakh crore in 2023-24. from the department of public enterprises is shown as a
The budgeted revenue from direct (personal income and mere Rs.26.60 crore. On the other hand, the market value
corporate income taxes) is Rs. 22.07 lakh crore and Rs.16.17 of all Central PSEs is an estimated Rs.22 lakh crore accord-
lakh crore from indirect taxes (excise, customs and GST). ing to CareEdge, a Mumbai-based rating agency cited by
Revenue could have been greater if dividends from the Business Today (August 4). Why aren’t they auctioned lock,
Centre’s 256 public sector enterprises (PSEs) were higher stock and barrel and sale proceeds utilised to draw down
than the budgeted Rs.2.89 lakh crore. But PSEs promoted the Centre’s debt burden which will reduce its annual inter-
by successive Congress governments and mis-managed by est payout? Inevitably, their few thousand workers — used
business-illiterate bureaucrats and clerks since the early to the cushy life — will object on convenient ideological
1950s are a legacy millstone which every government at grounds.
the Centre has carried around its neck since then. The Cen- But the real reason is that even loss-making PSEs provide
tre’s average ROI (return on investment) on PSEs is barely ruling party politicians and bureaucrats of all stripes, hues
1-2 percent cf. 14-15 percent in private industry and PSEs and ideologies myriad opportunities to earn ‘side incomes’

AUGUST 2024 EDUCATIONWORLD 69