Subsidies on petroleum products

‘Do away with fuel subsidies'

Dr Raghuram Rajan
Mumbai, May 24


India should do away with inefficient subsidies on petroleum products and remove bottlenecks in the acquisition of land for setting up infrastructure projects to promote higher economic growth, according to Dr Raghuram G. Rajan, Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago. While underscoring the fact that India is in a relatively sweet spot, Dr Raghuram said the subsidies on petroleum products were misdirected as it was promoting consumption of precious fuel by the rich. The economist suggested that with the international crude oil prices ruling low, the time was ripe for the Government to remove the subsidies and improve the fiscal position. On the issue of land acquisition by infrastructure companies in India, Dr Raguhram said land acted as a barrier to entry and only those with ‘connections' could successfully execute infrastructure projects. —
…from the pages of THE HINDU BUSINESSLINE