Mr. Milind Barve, managing director, HDFC Asset Management Company

Mr. Barve has had a tremendous track record in the field of finance. After having served India’s leading housing finance company, HDFC, in various capacities in the finance function, Mr. Barve was the unanimous choice when the financial institution set up its mutual fund through its controlling company, HDFC Asset Management Company. Mr. Barve took over as managing director of this company and has, since, been responsible for the introduction of several mutual fund products from this stable.

Some of his views, observations and expectations from budget 2001:

• Stimulus to be given to capital formation which would, in turn, see the setting up of greenfield/brownfield projects that would boost demand and employment.
• More sectors should be open to foreign direct investment.
• The policy of monetisation is bad as it ends up putting pressure on the currency/exchange rate, which is not desirable.
• Government borrowings are not going into productive assets, but to meet its administrative expenses, which is very dangerous for the economy.
• The direct tax structure should be left untouched. Higher taxes only leads to tax evasion and the government should look into areas of increasing the tax base.
• Disinvestment in the public sector is the only answer to the fiscal troubles of the government. The government should not only set disinvestment targets, but also implement the program in a time-bound manner.
• Proceeds from the sale of PSUs should be used to retire public debt and thereby reduce interest out goings.
• Subsidy element in the economy needs to be reviewed and the burden on fiscal deficit by way of fiscal subsidies needs to be reduced substantially.
• Bring down dividend tax and allow pension and provident funds to invest in the capital markets.