" If " is an illusion.

Like little children are promised ice cream if they eat up their vegetables we are told that the Indian economy will grow again if global demand picks up, if inflation comes down, if monsoon rains are just perfect, without deficiency or floods, if companies invest in new business or if we stop buying gold so that politicians can buy 12 luxury helicopters for Rs 37 billion. As an old song by Roger Whitaker said, " If's an illusion. No you won't believe in if anymore. If's for children." The HSBC Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, which is a gauge of business activity in factories but not utilities, fell to 50.1 in May from 51.0 in April the third straight monthly fall. TOI 4 June. Anything above 50 is growth and below it is contraction. The factory output sub-index fell to 48.6 in May from 50.2 in April. Production is decreasing because demand is falling and demand is falling because of retail inflation and enormous taxes on every kind of goods and service. So difficult has it become for ordinary households that frequency of eating out in restaurants has dropped by 50%. " There is an overall pressure on the purchasing power of people. The service tax implemented since April this year had further impacted sentiments," said Samir Kuckreja, President of the National Restaurant Association of India. High taxes and reduced government spending on infrastructure helped to bring down the fiscal deficit to 4.9% of GDP so that they can increase spending on wasteful social schemes to win the coming elections. It is not just extortionate taxes but sudden changes in tax rules that businesses dread. That is why Foreign Direct Investment fell by 38% to a paltry $22.42 billion in the whole of 2012-13. In 2011-12 FDI was $35.12 billion. At the same time the Current Account Deficit in 2012 was $93 billion, second only to the US is absolute terms. Vladimir Evtoushenkov, Chairman and co-founder of the $34 billion Russian conglomerate, Sistema,  which is a majority shareholder in the telecom company Sistema Sham, said about India," Regulatory climate is not very good. You can put together a business plan but you can't implement  because the rules keep changing." Since 1 June a new tax has come into effect which forces a buyer of any property costing more than Rs 5 million to deduct a 1% tax from the value and submit it to the Income Tax Department. Since we do not work for the government why should we be forced into servitude? These fellows have been elected to serve us, instead we are being treated like servants to raise money for their pleasure. We are being deceived by a big " If ". If only.