Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said this year’s budget has negated the notion that the welfare state is a socialist prerogative, and added that it has given a directional change to the Indian economy , wherein the government trusts wealth creators and citizens.

She lauded the reform of faceless assessment for direct and indirect taxes, saying that tax terrorism will be a thing of the past, but also warned that “technology terrorism” will now gain ground.

“This is a budget for new decade. This budget clearly says- private sector we trust you and you are welcome to participate in the development of the country. It’s a budget in which we are recognising what a government can do or how far it can do…So it’s a budget that gives directional change to the Indian economy,” Sitharaman said while addressing a meeting of intellectuals organised by the BJP.

“We inherited a system from the USSR, where glories of socialism were spoken about…That only socialism can take care of the welfare of the entire population. They say welfare state is a socialist prerogative,” she said.

“So we went for socialism, which could not fit into the Indian ethos. We have lived through this…We have lived through some of the dirty times of the license-quota raj,” the minister added.

The directional change that we are talking about is we have gone through those things (socialism and license-quota raj for industries). Now, we are not suspecting you (citizens and wealth creators) that you are always upto something. We trust you and invite you to participate in the development of the country, she said.

Narendra Modi, after becoming the prime minister in 2014, discarded the system of notary saying that citizens can self attest their documents, she said, adding that the system of boiler inspector, who would certify that the boiler in a factory is ok, was also abolished.

When you have invested money and are working hard to create wealth by manufacturing goods, then what is the requirement of a third party inspection to give a certificate, she asked.

“In the same way, we have changed the tax system, be it direct taxes or indirect taxes. Earlier, we used to hear complaints that we cannot put up with this tax terrorism. Such were the words used. Now technology has been brought in a big way and we hope that no official will call you up and say come and meet me and bring something (bribe) with you,” she said.

Such a thing will not happen in the future as the government has gone for faceless assessment. Technology, in a large sweeping way, will look at all the transactions taking place, Sitharaman said.

Success in identifying the loopholes is better with technology as compared to the past when officers used to interact one-on-one, she said.

“Technology can identify where loopholes exist, where people are misusing the system, where people are using it for their own advantage and all this is coming out without one to one interaction,” she said.

“So technology terrorism will happen next,” the finance minister said.

She said that corporate taxes are the lowest in India and that is one of the reasons why foreign companies want to set up their base in the country.

Speaking about disinvestment, she said, “It is time to take a call till when we will put taxpayers’ money in running public sectors, when private sectors can do it. We do not want them to close, but we will invite private sectors to run a better enterprise.”

She said that the IMF has predicted 11.5 per cent growth in Indian economy this year.

“The sentiments on the ground match these predictions as the industrialists I meet are saying that they have sustained demands and their manufacturing units are running at full capacity now,” she said.

Sustained increase in GST collections also speaks about the revival of the economy, she said.

With the world’s top emitters announcing their intention to bring down their emissions of greenhouse gases to net zero, the attention is on India, the fourth largest contributor to the world’s annual flow of greenhouse gas emissions, and its plans.

“India is a key country. It is going to be vital in terms of ensuring that we have success on the route to COP26,” said Alok Sharma , UK minister and chair of the 2021 round of UN-sponsored climate talks . With the easing of some of the travel restrictions imposed due to the pandemic, Sharma begun his in-person meetings as part of the UK’s outreach of November meet in Glasgow. India was the first stop in Asia . “I have, as part of the discussions, delivered the same message that I have delivered to every government I have met both virtually and of course now physically in terms of what we are trying to achieve from COP,” Sharma told ET. Four issues make to the COP26 president’s priority list —ambition, adaptation, finance and the completion of the Paris rulebook.

The pandemic and the need to build back better as well as the need fast in this decade to limit the most catastrophic impacts of climate change has made increasing efforts to slow down temperature rise an urgent priority. Making stepping up ambition through enhanced climate action among the four priority issues that the UK would like countries to focus on in the run up to and at the Glasgow meet. This would mean ensuring countries to submit updated nationally determined contributions or climate plans with enhanced targets to be met by 2030 and getting more countries to set net zero targets.

Prime Minister Modi announced an enhanced renewable energy capacity target of 450GW by 2030 at the Climate Ambition Summit marking the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement in December. This is step up from India’s 2015 NDC which had committed to ensuring that 40% of the country’s energy generating capacity would be non-fossil that includes large hydro and nuclear power. However, India is yet to submit an updated NDC.

While it is likely that the there will be considerable pressure on India to enhance climate action and set a net zero target, Sharma pointed out there are many areas in which India is moving forward towards a green transition . Referring to the progress on renewables, the budget announcement on hydrogen, net zero commitment by the railways, the work on energy efficiency, Sharma said, “there are a whole range of areas that India is moving forward and I think that needs to be recognized and applauded.”

India’s continued dependence on coal despite the strides made in renewable energy has been a focus of global conversation. The IEA analysis finds that more aggressive policies could bring forward the convergence date. But what is clear that in this critical decade, India will, despite the increasing share of renewables in the energy mix, still need to use coal to meet the growth in energy demand .

With the global conversation focused on putting an end to the use of coal, India’s energy compulsions are often overlooked. This is would be a concern especially as the UK leads the Powering Past Coal Alliance.

“Every country has a different starting point, and you have to recognize that,” said Sharma responding to India’s continued reliance on coal. “If you look at the UK, back in 2014, coal supplied 30 per cent of the electricity. That is now down to a few percentages and last year we went for a number of months before we had to use coal.” The share of coal in UK’s electricity mix has been declining since 2012 from 39 per cent to 2.1 per cent in 2019.

Sharma points to direction of travel, pointing out that India has quadrupled its renewables over the last ten years. “If you look at where India wants to get to by 2030, in terms of 450 GW of renewables, that is a significant increase. So, the point is there is a clear recognition that this is the way forward and it is part of the energy transition and that India is moving at some pace,” said Sharma.

Beyond the energy transition, India can play a critical role in the run-up the November climate meet with regard to adaptation, second of the priority issues that the UK is focusing on. Sharma said that the effort is to encourage countries “to come forward with adaptation plans and adaptation communications and this is a place where India has shown a lot of leadership particularly through CDRI. The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, launched by Prime Minister Modi at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in September 2019, is a partnership to rapidly expand the development of resilient infrastructure and retrofit existing infrastructure for resilience to address infrastructure losses due to climate change.

The UK, which will have the longest tenure as chair of the UN-sponsored climate talks, took over the stewardship of the global effort to tackle climate change after a less than stellar outcome in Madrid round of talks chaired by Chile. The 25th round of the UN climate talks chaired by Chile was unable to resolve differences over issues such as carbon markets, financing needs to address loss and damage. The Chile-Madrid talks saw an erosion of co-operative spirit forged in Paris in 2015 fuelling a loss of trust among the countries.

The main reason for the loss of trust between developed and developing countries is the slow progress on meeting the goals set in the past, particularly by rich industrialised countries. India along with other developing countries has consistently raised the issue of unmet commitments of the pre-2020 or pre-Paris era. While the unmet commitments relate to emission reductions, provision of finance, technology and assistance for capacity building.

The UK recognises the need to build trust among countries and has identified finance as a priority area. “Commitments have been made by individual countries, one of the areas I am particularly focused on is finance,” explained Sharma.

“There was a commitment that was made that by 2020 donor countries would be making a $100 billion a year available. Of course, we are still working very hard to make sure this happens and that figure is reached,” said Sharma.

“I think it is very much a matter of trust for developing countries particularly,” he said. “There are concrete things that matter particularly for developing countries were commitments have been made as I said a very concrete example is finance and that is an area we should be looking to see whether we can match the promises with delivery.”

Recognising the critical role that fulfilling finance commitment could play in building trust, the Britain’s top boss for the Glasgow meet said, “this is a matter I am very focused on ensuring that we deliver on the promises that have been made by donor countries.”

Underscoring the UK’s commitment on the finance question, Sharma reiterated that the British government’s efforts—at the UN General Assembly in 2019 Prime Minister Boris Johnson committed to doubling international climate finance. “That is why am urging all do not countries to come forward and make good on that $100 billion pledge.”

The fourth issue that the UK wants to focus on is the completion of the Paris Rulebook. “A number of areas –Article 6, a number of issues on transparency, common time frames that will need to be discussed and we will need to try and close off,” said the COP26 President.

Finalising the rulebook, Sharma said will require compromise and “we will have to build consensus between now and COP so that we get these over the line.”

Critical to building consensus is discussion and negotiations that have been made difficult due to the pandemic. The UN Secretary General’s suggestion to hold virtual negotiations has raised concerns even as countries recognise the need to resume the critical discussions. Trust that the virtual negotiations will not disadvantage the most vulnerable of the global south, promote the lack of transparency, and the real challenges of access are major causes of concern.

“There is a sense of urgency and people do want to find a consensus on how we move forward. And that is what I want to do, ultimately this is a consensus-based process. We talk about trust and I think the way you build trust is ensuring that people feel that they are involved. That this is inclusive and that there is a consensus agreement around this.”

To this end, Sharma is undertaking a listening (virtual and otherwise) tour . The UK minister said that there is a need to have some detailed discussions ahead of the Glasgow meet and he is reaching out to all the UNFCCC negotiating groups to work out how best to do that. “I am talking to the chairs of all negotiating groups to understand from them what are the key issues that will matter for them in terms of negotiations and secondly what are their thoughts in terms of how we can make this work.”

Sharma explained that these discussions are currently underway. “There are obviously various suggestions that have been made in terms of some forms of virtual discussions and in terms of some forms of hybrid discussions and there is a lot that you can actually discuss before you get to the stage of doing a formal discussion.”

“I understand the sensitivity around inclusivity and that is why I am having these discussions so that when we are able to come forward and sort of have a discussion around proposals that is something that there is buy in from all negotiating groups,” stressed Sharma.

The UK is planning COP26 in Glasgow as physical event. “We are working on the basis that we should be able to have a physical event,” said Sharma, “nevertheless none of us can predict where we will be in November, so we are planning on contingencies.”

The erosion of trust, the less than desired speed of climate action, and the pandemic and its impact on economies and societies and the growing scientific evidence of the need to act fast to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change makes the 26th edition of the UN-sponsored climate meet critical. Billed as the most important climate meet since the 2015 Paris summit, the UK has the challenging task of ensuring the solidarity and cooperation among countries.

Sharma acknowledges that there is a lot of work that needs to be done but he reminded that the world is at an inflexion point.

“There is no doubt that Covid-19 has preoccupied governments around the world and that governments around the world have stepped up to protect jobs, livelihoods, businesses in their own countries. Nevertheless, we know when it comes to climate change the clock is still ticking. I do think we are at an inflexion point where you are seeing the way that governments, businesses, our population and civil society look at this are very much converging.”

The dialogue was held virtually by Chief Executive of the New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries, Ray Smith, and Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Le Quoc Doanh.

At the event, the two sides voiced their commitment to the two countries’ deepening agriculture and trade relationship.

Smith and Doanh affirmed that the Strategic Partnership, which was jointly announced by Prime Ministers in July last year, has created a solid foundation for increasing bilateral agricultural cooperation and connections between the two countries.

Speaking at the dialogue, Smith emphasized that this is a valuable opportunity to consider what both sides can do together as they build resilience and vitality back into their agriculture economies following COVID-19.

The Agriculture Cooperation Arrangement will enable both sides to advance their key agricultural interests in enhancing bilateral trade, reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, promoting food safety, utilising agriculture research and technology, and in rural development.

Speaking at the ceremony, Doanh said that agriculture was critical to the economic wellbeing of our countries.

Both nations were strong agriculture producers and exporters, with complementary products, he said, adding that the establishment of the New Zealand – Vietnam Agricultural Dialogue and the signing of the Agriculture Cooperation Arrangement would boost their connections, cooperation and two-way trade, in line with what the two Prime Ministers highlighted during last years’ Strategic Partnership dialogue.

The New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries is already supporting agriculture cooperation with MARD with activities in plant health, veterinary epidemiology, and electronic certification. These activities complement New Zealand’s ongoing development program, which has a number of agriculture projects including the premium fruit development project in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, the rural dam safety project in central Vietnam, and the safe vegetables project in Binh Dinh province.

Smith said that New Zealand has developed one of the most efficient agriculture sectors in the world, with a reputation for cutting-edge research and technology, robust and safe agricultural practices, and delicious and high-quality products.

He expressed his hope that the newly signed cooperation arrangement will help build value and expand investment opportunities between the two countries.

“We recognize that increased trade is not just about exporting more products, it’s about an exchange of knowledge, expertise, technology, services, and investment. This two-way exchange benefits both of us,” he said.

He said New Zealand also looked forward to doing more to assist the MARD’s greenhouse gas inventory capability through the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases.

The two officials confirmed their shared commitment to finalizing new fruit access for each other this year so consumers can enjoy New Zealand strawberries and squash in Vietnam and Vietnamese limes and pomelos in New Zealand.

Vietnam is New Zealand’s 14th largest trading partner, with two-way trade valued at 2 billion NZD, at year-end September 2020. While COVID-19 has posed some challenges, Vietnam remains a promising market for New Zealand and vice versa due to robust demand for key agricultural products.

Source: VNA