Finance Minister Jaswant Singh has been more successful in delivering on his predecessor Yashwant Sinha's promises than the former finance minister himself.
A comparison of the Action Taken Reports for 2001-02 and 2002-03 reveal that while action was completed in case of 47 of the 103 promises made by Sinha in March 2001, 50 of the 87 promises made by Sinha were fulfilled during the current fiscal.
The government has not made any progress on a long-term grain policy to work out a more durable approach to food management.
While a high-level committee has submitted its report, no action has been initiated. Then there is the City Challenge Fund where a draft policy is yet to be firmed up.
Also, the proposed Infra Equity Fund with a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) is yet to be operationalised and the ATR points out that promoters like State Bank of India and Life Insurance Corporation are assessing its viability.
In the case of dereservation of 35 agricultural implements, the government has gone back on its promise and continued with reservation for 25 items in the category on the grounds that they are simple in nature and should not be dereserved.
The promise to replace the Public Debt Act and convert the Deposit Insurance Credit and Guarantee Corporation are also yet to be fulfilled.
The government has received the concurrence of all state legislatures and proposes to introduce the Government Securities Bill in the Budget session of Parliament.
In some cases, state governments need to implement the decisions.
These include removal of restrictions on inter-state movement and amendment of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Acts.
The government has decided to formulate a model APMA legislation for guiding states in implementing the programme.
Some proposals announced by the government require legislative changes for which bills have been introduced but are pending with parliamentary standing committees.
The list includes bills to corporatise port trusts and the Industrial Development Bank of India. But there are issues like privatisation of airports where the blame for non-implementation has been put on legislative amendments.
There are cases of the government taking credit for a job that is yet to be completed as is the case with amendments to the Companies Act.
The changes, based on the Naresh Chandra committee's views, will strengthen accounting standards and increase the effectiveness of auditors.
There are also some items on the list for which the government hasn't taken credit, for instance, permitting futures trading in 54 commodities.
The ATR tabled along with the Budget said that a cabinet note is under consideration even though a decision was taken by the Cabinet earlier.
Then there are areas where a major part of the job has been completed, e.g., the removal of restrictions on export of agricultural commodities. Except onions and niger seeds, all other commodities can be exported without any restriction.
