Regardless of what the matheists (feeble-minded, all of them) say, numbers are the most objective language there is. True, these can be tweaked around, too, but they are nowhere near as malleable as words. Which is why the government’s recent set of gaffes on the figures’ front needs special attention.
Strike one: our financial mandarins asked for postponements in the next crucial meeting with the IMF (contingent on which is the next $1.8 billion tranche of our loan program) on account of having only provisional statistics, not final ones. The meeting – and with it, the tranche – is now being deferred for lack of a governor of the central bank but it remains unclear whether the books are still in order.
Strike two: at the government’s recently convened meeting of the concerned ministries on the power crisis, there was much confusion over the exact extent of the circular debt. Not knowing the exact figure of the wattage of deficit is (slightly) understandable on the measure of entropy involved but not being clear on the circular debt is plain slacking. The government is, only to use the pun, in the dark.
Strike three: the blame game has already started in the revenue machine about the misreporting of certain taxation figures. It is clear now that the revenue targets for fiscal 2011-12 are to be missed. They are slated to be revised downward.
No one seems to be minding the store when it comes to matters financial. We’re running through one finance minister after another, from one central bank chief to another. The story’s even worse when it comes to the financial bureaucracy.
The significant progress that the government has made in constitutional matters and the rather chess-like wiliness it has shown in the political arena isn’t going to amount to much if (when?) our accounts go kaput.
The presidency and parliament house need to stop looking west towards the garrison city for a bit and start looking east to the Q Block in the Secretariat.
