"A caretaker government cannot initiate any far-reaching measures with the avowed objective of benefiting a class or section of the people as that too will have a bearing on the elections. This is the practice adopted in the past by such caretaker governments," officials explain. This means the Government will be constrained in going ahead with its "second generation" economic reforms for which a paper has already been prepared by the finance ministry. Similar is the position regarding the passage of the insurance bill. Fortunately for the government, the patents bill has already been passed by Parliament and the provision of exclusive rights for foreign companies has been given effect to. Officials, however, feel that wherever decisions on disinvestment had been taken prior to the fall of the government based on the Disinvestment Commission's recommendations, they could be implemented. For example, bureaucrats can continue with the disinvestment exercise in Indian Oil Corporation, GAIL, Kudremukh Iron,Bharat Aluminium and Engineers India.

But fresh divestment of shares of public enterprises will have to be put on hold until after the elections which is likely to hit the government's plan to garner resources of about Rs 10,000 crore through such a measure during the current fiscal. Officials also say that where foreign-investment proposals had been cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, they could be given effect to. Officials said all the provisions of the revised exim policy notified by the commerce minister on March 31 would be implemented by issuing relevant notifications by the revenue department.The provisions relate to the reduction in the threshold limit under the export promotion capital goods (EPCG) scheme from Rs 20 crore to Rs 1 crore for some new sectors and conversion of all existing export-processing zones into free trade zones, the latter two of which are from July 1. The law ministry was now vetting these notifications and as soon as the exercise was over, they would be published. In the case of reduction in the threshold limit under the EPCG scheme for the chemicals, plastics and textile sectors, officials quoting the revenue department said that a committee headed by the commerce secretary generally issued the licences, which took about three months.

A similar time was also taken by entrepreneurs to import new as well as second-hand capital goods allowed under the scheme. There was, therefore, no tearing hurry in issuing the notification. As regards the issue of advance licences and the new FTZ scheme, officials explained that the commerce ministry was still preparing the blueprint and so soon as it was ready, the relevant notification would also be issued.