Chennai: Industry experts have expressed concerns over a 23-member high level committee headed by former RBI Governor Dr C Rangarajan formed by the Tamilnadu government to bring the State’s economy back on the growth trajectory post Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown.
The MSME sector representatives feel, formation of an expert committee is not a right move at this time. ‘Today what MSME need is urgent announcements and support, to survive and not long term vitamins and solutions alone,’ they said.
According to K E Raghunathan, former national president of All India Manufacturers Organisation (AIMO), ‘forming an expert committee is fine to address long term needs. In my opinion, any such independent committee should be with only experts. They should submit their recommendations to a group of IAS officers and then they should present them to the government. Too many IAS officials in the committee will only delay the process as all are busy at this crucial time.’
On Saturday, a Government Order (GO) issued by Chief Secretary K Shanmugam said Dr Rangarajan, who is also the former Chairman of PM’s
Economic Advisory Council and currently Chairman of Madras School of Economics (MSE), would be the Chairman of the Committee which would have 23 others, including those from Industry, as members.
The Committee would subnmit its final report to the government within three months time and also submit interim report as it may deem fit as required by the government.
The Terms of Reference of the Committee included, assessing the overall immediate and medium term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on different sectors of Tamilnadu’s economy, including the impact of the lockdown, additional costs and implications due to social distancing and other precautionary measures, besides assessing the short and medium term opportunities and threats.
It would also suggest measures required to help important sectors of the economy to overcome the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, identify specific reform measures to be taken by the State government to support and promote the growth of important sectors of the economy, assess the impact of the crisis on State government’s fiscal situation and suggest way forward to improve the fiscal position, including increasing the tax, GDP ratio and diversifying revenue sources and re-prioritizing expenditure, besides the issues to be taken up with the Centre by the State that included fiscal issues and economy promotion measures and identify possible sources of financing and funding for different sectors, including infrastructure projects, small businesses and other enterprises.