I am not just a banker. I am a trained chartered accountant and lawyer. I am also connected to 20 public registered companies as a director.
We have a family business that deals with export, mining, real estate development, etc. That business is being managed professionally, so there is no reason why it should have any bearing on politics.
As a banker, I am on the board of Saraswat Bank. I will continue to be there. That is totally distinct from my life as a politician.
I would, of course, need to curtail some of my other commitments because I do understand that a large portion of my time will be occupied by my responsibilities as a politician. This is a rare opportunity for me to serve the people.
Politics, for me, does not mean power. I already had power in my capacity as chairman of the Maharashtra State Finance Commission and as chairman of Saraswat Bank. But I have resigned from my position as chairman of the state finance commission so that I could file my nomination.
To me, power is a means to serving the people which is the end.
What is your opinion of the fiscal reforms?
I welcome the reforms. Unfortunately, the reformation process that has taken place so far is very cosmetic. The entire process needs to be overhauled. We have dispensed with restrictions on our imports, but internal trade needs to be reformed a great deal. By just allowing imports to flood our market is not really going to help internal trade. The reforms have not really taken place at the pace which we would have liked it to be.
What would your advice to Finance Minister Manmohan Singh be?
The economy, today, is in very bad shape. We have a huge fiscal deficit and an alarming foreign debt. Our domestic debt has reached an appalling six billion rupees. Our total domestic and foreign debt amounts to a staggering Rs 6,000 billion of which external debt amounts to a frightening $ 100 billion. Our interest burden has hit Rs 540 billion to Rs 600 billion per annum; this is a luxury we cannot afford.
Manmohan Singh should, first and foremost, try and reduce this debt. The money that we gain by selling our public sector units should go into the liquidation of our foreign or internal debt. Instead, what we are doing is increasing our revenue expenditure and selling our public sector units to finance it.
Secondly, we have to make our exports competitive. For which we need to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit. The present government claims that the license raj has been abolished; that is just not true. People are even now being subjected to a lot of red tapeism and procedural issues and corruption. Any small scale industrialist will tell you that he has several more requirements to meet with now that he had before the reforms process started.
There have been some positive changes; the markets are expanding and that is a good sign. But the pace of change has to be faster. So far, the changes have only been in terms of direction. Now we need some really substantial changes.
Do you feel India needs multinational investment?
Yes, we definitely need multinational investment especially where infrastructure is concerned.
At the same time, foreign investment should not be allowed in non-productive areas. Otherwise, we will find that investors shying away from us a few years down the line.
Ideally, we should have followed the Chinese method of creating our infrastructure indigenously. They borrowed from the IMF, they borrowed from multinational agencies, they used their own money and they created their own infrastructure. Then they asked foreigners to come in and set up industries.
We cannot afford to do that now because we don't have the time. China began this process in 1978, we started in 1992. Now the government need to prioritise its infrastructural investment. They are concentrating on critical sectors like road, power, water generation, railways, telecommunications, but they need to hasten the pace.
Also, industries should be properly privatised.