MUMBAI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said there is a need to delve into facts before attacking the Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch on grounds that Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion.
“There’s just no way in which all of us can sit around here and talk about this Caesar’s wife business saying ‘No no… regulators have to be above board’ and keep throwing things without looking at the facts.I strongly recommend that facts be taken on board before discussing anything with the regulators,” Sitharaman said in response to a question on allegations against Buch during a fireside chat at a banking event hosted by the Financial Express.
Buch has been facing the heat after US short-seller Hindenburg Research released a string of allegations against her beginning Aug 10. These were picked up by the Congress party, which dug into her tax filings to show that she continued to earn an active income even after being appointed at Sebi.
Sitharaman went on to say that Indian regulators‘ functioning has brought greater transparency to the system, and now, even their global peers look up to them. She said this was true of the markets, banking, and insurance sectors, but specified that the statement was not in response to the query on Buch.
Responding to a question on whether food inflation should be factored in for monetary policy decisions, Sitharaman said, “I think there’s a lot of debate required on this, and I wouldn’t yet take any position about whether food should be in there or not.” However, she added that the consumer and wholesale price indices required a review as “the WPI basket probably has certain items which probably will have to be in CPI, and the CPI also has some items in the basket which probably don’t have a contemporary value.”
On the issue of state governments announcing giveaways for voters, Sitharaman said she is not in favour of “freebies which cannot be sustained in your normal welfare kitty.” She emphasised the need to differentiate between unsustainable freebies and legitimate welfare measures, adding that money spent on supporting the poor, providing education, healthcare etc, should not be seen as “freebies” even if they have been inefficient in the past. The focus should be on making these welfare measures more efficient and transparent.
Sitharaman also flagged the issue of high committed expenditure in some states, reaching over 50-60% of their budgets.