Former finance secretary Ashok Chawla, who is heading a panel that is reviewing the policy for allocation and pricing of natural resources, has said his priority would be to make the processes more transparent and obviate the needs for frequent changes in policy.
Speaking to FE, he said, ?the purpose of the committee is to look at the processes and devise ways to make them as transparent as possible.? Policies should not be subject to frequent changes. The committee will recommend any changes, if required, in the allocation policy to check scope for unfair practices as witnessed in the case of 2G spectrum allocation. Natural resources being allocated to businesses include like mines, coal, spectrum, oil, natural gas,water and land.
Talking about the complexity of the issue he added, the government is keen to look at an ?open, transparent and competitive? mechanism for allocation, utilisation and pricing of scarce natural resources. He says while many of the natural resources did lend themselves to auction, there were some that were in the nature of public goods and others that could not be auctioned in the interest of public welfare. ?Auctioning may not be desirable or doable in some cases since revenue maximisation may not be the only goal in all cases,? he adds.
The committee was appointed by Cabinet secretariat in February. It will also examine the efficacy of the existing legal and regulatory framework and ways to optimise benefits of allocation for all stakeholders.
The committee will summit its report by April end to the Cabinet secretariat which will present it before the group of ministers looking at ways to tackle corruption. The GoM is headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The Chawla committee has nine secretary-level officials (from the ministries of petroleum and natural gas, coal, mines, telecommunications, defence, water resources, environment and forests, the department of land resources, and the department of expenditure and economic affairs) as its members.
Govind Mohan, joint secretary, Cabinet secretariat, is the member secretary. The Centre for Policy Research has been appointed as the main research body for the committee?s deliberations. It will also help the committee examine the best international practices in allocation of natural resources being followed by other countries.
Besides the high-level team of government officials, the committee has two outsiders ? Chandrajit Banerjee, director-general of CII, and Rajiv Kumar, director-general of Ficci. The environment and forests ministry has been included with a view to introduce a degree of sustainability to the measures suggested.