Anupam Manur & Sarthak Pradhan quoted in the Open on economic populism

Anupam Manur and Sarthak Pradhan, from the Economic Policy team at Takshashila Institution were quoted in the Open magazine on populist electoral promises and their fiscal implications.

Sarthak Pradhan, asso­ciate fellow at Takshashila Institution, says that with a relatively low debt-to-GSDP ra­tio, and increasing revenue receipts, coming mainly from the state’s own taxes, Karnataka may be able to generate the funds needed to implement Congress’ welfare package. “The incoming government must have clarity about how it plans to generate this extra rev­enue, either by raising taxes or by leveraging non-tax revenue,” he says. It is also not clear from the manifesto if schemes like the un­employment dole come with a sunset clause, Pradhan points out.

“Populist schemes are usually a mask for failure of governance and often come at the cost of capital expenditure,” says Anupam Manur, assistant professor at Takshashila Institution. “While the Congress manifesto is deliberately vague on the intended benefi­ciaries of some of the schemes, it does reflect the economic frustra­tion in the state. The lack of jobs is a real concern across India. India needs to create 20 million jobs a year, but governments have been hard pressed to come up with policies to enable this,” he says.

Read the full report here.