Fear not, folks. Lumpen do not quite rule the roost - even at election time. Which is why nice, civilised gents like Dr M and Mr C can be seen on TV, making a pitch for the votes of nice, civilised gents like you and me. While they are talking gravely about grave matters like GDP growth and global trade (lightly skipping over stuff like the fiscal deficit and how exactly it can be eliminated), it is easy to believe that reforms have actually managed to reform, that India is about to become some sort of member of the feline species and that the license-permit raj of noisome memory has been abolished for good.But that's TV. And like your grandma says, one shouldn't believe everything one sees on television. Like a lot of other things in this country (like literacy and rural electrification (you're literate if you can sign your name and your village is electrified if some sort of power line exists within striking distance, never mind if it has actually been struck), a crucial part of reform appears to havestill remained on paper.
Like all the stuff which needs to be on paper before one can even contemplate starting, leave alone running or closing any sort of enterprise. And not just on any old paper but paper which has been issued, authorised, checked and/or approved by the government. Which brings in our old friends, the chaps who do the issuing, authorising, checking and/or approving on behalf of the government.
At a meeting of the industries associations of Coimbatore, somebody started running up a list of the number of different kinds of inspectors who may descend on an entrepreneur. He reached sixteen. This was quickly doubled and then doubled again. A final, exhaustive tally showed that an entrepreneur running even a small scale unit can expect, at some time or the other, with greater or lesser probability, a grand total of one hundred and sixteen minions of various arms of central, state and local government. The list is staggering. From getting power allocations to pollution clearances to firesafety certificates to boiler inspections to sales tax certificates - the amount of paperwork involved is staggering.
And the number of government agencies, simply unbelievable.
Even the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), for God's sake! Sounds far fetched? Moans one businessman : ``Mega scams take place elsewhere, but heaven forbid if your name figures on some invoice for any sort of supplies - even if the amount is negligible, you have to answer a thousand questions about how you got the order, who gave you the order, prove that you did not bribe him...''
That was just a couple of weeks ago. So what reforms are we talking about? Over the six or seven years that the reforms process has been pursued seriously by the government, life has remained virtually unchanged for the Indian entrepreneur, when it comes to the core area of activity - enterprise itself. It is only marginally easier to translate an idea into a running business now, than it was in 1991. It is just as bothersome to keep itgoing.What if excise duties have been cut. Even if it has been cut to zero does not change anything, nil rate of excise or sales tax does not mean the same as exempt. The form still has to be filled, the signatures still need to be obtained. Which means speed money or else.
Licenses may have gone, permits may have perished. But the Inspector raj rules on, regardless.
Copyright(c)1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
