Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Union budget

It has been proposed in the Union budget to allow cent per cent tax exemption for donations made to electoral trusts. India needs honest men and women in politics to reduce poverty, achieve the Millennium Development Goals, hold boundary talks, conduct foreign affairs and so on. For them to enter the legislature, money is a constraint. With the announcement that donations to electoral trusts will be 100 per cent tax-free, there is a ray of hope that honest men and women may get a share of it. However, there are two possible negative fallouts — the trusts may be used to whiten black money and a majority of the voters will not be able to stop them from supporting criminal elements.

S.V. Murugan,

Karaikal

A mounting fiscal deficit is a matter of grave concern for the economy. Like individuals, no nation can live on borrowed money forever. There is no guarantee that higher government spending will result in higher growth because a large part of the expenditure is wasted and squandered away. The only possible method to reduce deficit is to cut wasteful government expenditure. When the economy is slowing down and the deficit mounting, how can anyone justify a 79-member jumbo Union Ministry? The Finance Minister could have allocated less for defence and reduced the allocation for MPs’ fund.

S. Raghunatha Prabhu,

Alappuzha

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