NEW DELHI, Oct 4: Raja Chelliah, former Planning Commission member and tax consultant, has called for cutting down the scope of governmental activities and decentralisation of expenditure responsibilities. This is part of a eight-point agenda recommended by Chelliah to enhance public governance and prune government expenditure as included in a forthcoming publication of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).Pointing out that in spite of the government expenditure having shot up by over 3.5 times in real terms during the last 25 years, with the average annual growth outstripping the average rate of growth of GDP, there is a decline in the quality of governance and soaring costs.
He blames it on surplus staff which casts an unjustified burden on the taxpayers. ``The inefficiency in government arises out of lack of control over excessively large staff whose accountability is very low and the extension of government activity and intervention to too many (non-public goods) areaswhich means unjustified cost and hindrance to beneficial private activity,'' according to Chelliah.
``The centre should gradually retire from the production of all privately produced goods, except those which are important from a strategic point of view,'' says Chelliah. According to him, wherever public enterprises are allowed for the production of private goods, they should as far as possible compete with private enterprises.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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