Economy Will Rebound Next Year

IN AN EXCLUSIVE interview with BW Businessworld’s Suman K. Jha, Union government’s finance secretary Ashok Lavasa holds forth on a host of subjects — from the Union Budget to demonetisation — and says, among other things, that the UBI is one of the alternatives that should be considered in the country, and that the DIPP may soon play the coordination role that the FIPB did while attracting FDIs. Excerpts:

- Suman K. Jha

The Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a much talked about scheme in the country today. Do you think it’s an idea whose time has come?

It’s an idea whose time has come for deliberations. This has been discussed for many years. Many alternatives have been tried. If you look at the direct benefit transfer, it’s a step in that direction.

Is it alright to assume that the UBI may be incorporated in future budgets?

This is something that will involve a lot of deliberations. It means that you discuss this idea with all those who participate in the resource transfer.

Phasing out subsidies and replacing them with one common UBI — is that an ideal one could look at in the future?

I don’t know if it’s an ideal. There are various ways through which you can minimise the transaction cost. You can attempt prevention of leakage. And hope that the benefit goes directly to the intended beneficiary. And that he/she derives maximum efficiency out of it.

In a country as vast as India, one should look at several alternatives. And the UBI is one of the alternatives that should be considered.

In this Budget, fiscal deficit target has been kept at 3.2 percent. Some feel you could have had a bigger window had you kept the target at 3.5 percent. Do you think the argument has any merit?