Members of EAC-PM meet House panel, flag costs of staggered polls

Economists from the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) Friday are learnt to have told the Joint Parliamentary Committee, examining the simultaneous elections Bills, that the cost of having staggered elections, as is the case now, went beyond the actual cost of conducting polls, with frequent polls affecting private investment.

The committee, chaired by BJP MP P P Chaudhary, met EAC-PM chairman Prof S Mahendra Dev, EAC-PM member Dr Shamika Ravi and EAC-PM part-time member Prof Pami Dua. The committee also met Vivekananda International Foundation chairman S Gurumurthy.

The EAC-PM members are learnt to have informed the committee that staggered elections end up discouraging private investment.

Mahendra Dev is learnt to have told the committee that uncertainty surrounding general elections has been found to lead to contraction in corporate capital expenditure. Ravi is learnt to have flagged the impact of staggered elections on low-income families. She is also learnt to have raised the issue of Centre-State coordination, saying that frequent polls disrupt the same, impacting long-term capital formation. The economic cost of separate elections was more than the actual accounting costs, she is learnt to have said.

Dua is learnt to have flagged the disruptions caused by the Model Code of Conduct, increase in government revenue expenditure and deployment of personnel.