Ruling out any rollback of reforms in the face of Leftist pressure, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the government policies needed to be fine-tuned to make it painless for the poor.
"No one wants a rollback. I have spoken to the Left. What they want is to go forward but take along the sections of the people, who have been neglected," Chidambaram said, indicating that the new Congress-led government was in favour of pursuing reforms with a human face.
There is a need to introduce a "doctrine of proportionality", which meant putting burden on the poor to the extent it is bearable, he told NDTV in the Walk-the-Talk programme.
To a question on subsidy reduction, he said: "The burden should be proportionate to their ability to bear it. If somebody cannot bear the burden, what is the point of putting that burden on his shoulder."
Meanwhile, Chidambaram is expected to carry forward the tax reforms on the lines of the recommendations of the Kelkar panel, which favoured phasing out of tax exemptions besides lowering the tax rates.
Kelkar's roadmap revolves around Chidambaram's theory: lower the taxes, higher the compliance. Chidambaram had proved that this works when he was the finance minister in the United Front government.
Chidambaram, who has already started his Budget-making exercise, was given a detailed presentation on tax reforms by Kelkar on Tuesday.
The Kelkar panel recommendations on toning up tax administration and computerisation of the tax system have mostly been carried out by the National Democratic Alliance government, but the difficult task of phasing out exemptions and widening tax base with lower rates are yet to be carried out as they could be politically unpopular.
Both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram have indicated in the past that Kelkar's recommendations would form the basis of tax reforms.
However, all agreed that the 'Big Bang' approach of carrying out all the reform measures would not be feasible as it would put pressure on taxpayers.
Regarding bringing down the customs duties, the government has already set to motion the process and it is only to be carried forward.
In fact, it was Chidambaram in his earlier avatar in the United Front government had promised to bring it down to the South-east Asian levels, which is precisely what Kelkar has suggested.