People's Democracy

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

Subhas Ray

AS part of the general budget, demands for grants for 47 ministries and departments were passed in Lok Sabha, without any discussion. This is ominous, as a large number of ministries and departments that should have faced strong criticism from members, went scot-free. This has become the usual practice of the government but does not augur well for democracy.

DISCUSSION ON FINANCE BILL

During the Lok Sabha discussion on finance bill on April 30, the CPI(M)’s Rupchand Pal dealt with the basic distortion in our taxation system. It is that those who can afford to pay do not pay, and those who cannot afford are made to bear the burden. While the government is expressing concern over the low tax-GDP ratio in the country, the number of those in the high income bracket (over Rs 10 lakh a year) has come down over the years. In 2002-03, the number of individuals/Hindu undivided families declaring their yearly income over Rs 10 lakh came down to 71,000 from 76,140 in 2001-02, while more than one lakh luxury cars were sold that year. But while the rich are dodging taxes, the salaried people cannot escape. Dependent on interest earnings on small savings, the pensioners are hit hard. Pal then asked: what does the government propose to do about this anomaly?

Dealing with customs and central excise, Pal said we are bringing down the customs duties as per WTO provisions while other WTO members are protecting their industries, including small and medium ones. The government is not looking after our small-scale sector. Rather, whatever reservations were there to protect this sector are being withdrawn. Expressing agony over the ongoing dereservation moves and withdrawal of protections and exemptions in respect of the central excise, Pal said such moves would finish the ready-made garments, powerloom and handloom units. Regarding the service sector taxes, he said the IT service is out of the purview of service sector. The call centres in India are having a field day. Service tax is being imposed on 61 new items. Pal demanded that the areas under the service sector should be clearly defined, otherwise a host of problems would arise. He said the service sector accounts for more than 50 per cent of GDP, but is still not accounted for in the WPI. This anomaly needs to be corrected. He also doubted if the goal of getting Rs 8,000 crore from the service sector is achievable.

Pal demanded waiver of the Rs 2.5 lakh ceiling in case of central government employees. It is said that interest rates are being slashed down as the inflation rate has come down. But the inflation rate is being wrongly calculated and in many cases it has no relation with the wholesale and consumer price indexes.

Pal also demanded concessions for jute and tea industries. He said the jute industry is eco-friendly but has to face competition from the powerful plastic and synthetic items lobby. There is sickness in the tea industry. It is facing many problems in eastern India and should be given adequate concessions.

WAGES OF GLOBALISATION

Varakala Radhakrishnan, CPI(M), sharply accused the government of not  taking the problem of unemployment seriously. There are so many proposals but no employment. Recruitment in central and state governments has stopped. Even the posts falling vacant are not being filled up. Thus job opportunities for the youth have drastically come down. As a result, there are reports about a spurt in criminal activities. The budget has not addressed this problem. Rather, the government’s policy is in the reverse direction. It is out to privatise the public sector units, thus reducing job opportunities. He said there could be no progress without solving this problem.

About Kerala, the CPI(M) member said it is a cash-crop producing state. It accounts for 90 per cent of the country’s rubber production. But the industry is in a bad shape and rubber farmers are starving. The government has not done anything to improve their lot. Natural rubber is included not among agricultural products but among raw materials. As a result, the rubber growers and industry are deprived of protections. The tariff policy is against the interests of our rubber growers. Same is the case with tea industry. Multinational companies are allowed to import tea into the country, pushing the tea industry into a serious crisis. Plantation crops like including pepper and areca nut are also facing crises. And so are coconut growers. As per the WTO rules, copra and coconut oil are not included among agricultural products but among industrial raw materials. So they are having no tariff protection. Coconut oil, palm oil and copra are being imported from Malaysia and other countries at the cost of our farmers.

Handloom and garment units are starving. Handloom industry is not getting any rebate or encouragement. It is made to compete with textile mill owners. So, one after another, handloom units are closing down throughout Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and other states. Looms and yarn have been made very costly. Hence the looms cannot compete with the mill owners. Thus the globalisation policies are pushing these industries to doom.

About the food situation in the country, Radhakrishnan said lakhs of tonnes of foodgrain are stacked in godowns and not being released to feed the people. There is no worthwhile food for work programme. People are starving. Starvation deaths are reported but that does not prick the conscience of our rulers.

Dealing with stock market position, he wondered if there is any stable stock market at all. The BSE, sensex and other indexes are falling. This position is dangerous. In regard to black money, the CPI(M) member termed it as a challenge to our economy. When there was a scheme for voluntary disclosure of assets, nobody came forward to disclose his income. Radhakrishnan suggested that the government must make a snap move to demonetise the currency notes of various denominations and replace some other notes. But the finance minister has no guts to do so. The member said unearthing black money is a must to rebuff the dangers to our economic development.

DISCUSSION ON TENTH PLAN

Rajya Sabha held a discussion on the tenth five year plan as adopted by the National Development Council. Prasanta Chatterjee, CPI(M), doubted the Planning Commission’s projection that poverty ratio would come down from 36 per cent in 1993-94 to 4.4 per cent by 2012. He said the Human Development Report 1999 computed the poverty index for 92 countries, and India ranked as low as 59 on it. This reflects our unsatisfactory performance in poverty alleviation. In fact, actual poverty figures are much higher than what by the government has given. He also asked if the government could tell us the number of very wealthy persons and if they are paying their due taxes. He said poverty would persist so long as the government is not serious about it. 

Dealing with unemployment, Chatterjee lambasted the government’s figures based on NSSO data. Many big states show less unemployment because they have a lesser number of employment exchanges. In Andhra Pradesh, one employment exchange serves 24.43 lakh population, and in Uttar Pradesh 19.77 lakh. But the corresponding figure is 3.8 lakh in Kerala and 10.70 lakh in West Bengal. The government says 42 crore people are not in working age group and 58 crore are. But the government’s figure of employed people is about 40 crore. So the difference comes to about 18 crore. If we deduct the self-employed professionals like lawyers, doctors, traders and businessmen, the unemployment figure would come to about 15 crore. Now the question is: if the government’s planning is based on such faulty figures, how can it alleviate poverty in the country?

About central assistance to states, Chatterjee said the state governments owe more than 60 per cent of their loans to the central government. The centre takes loans from the market at 7 per cent interest but charges 12 per cent from the states. The states are thus overburdened. In a small savings scheme, the balance after paying back the depositors’ amount is advanced as loan. Now the states have to pay back this loan with interest. The CPI(M) member asked: why cannot the net balance be distributed among the centre and the states? As for financial irresponsibility, the NDA government is itself saddled with liabilities to the tune of 61.4 per cent of GDP. It is, in other words, running on borrowed money. Before concluding, Chatterjee also dealt with problems of drinking water, health, sanitation and eviction of tribals from forestlands.

OTHER ISSUES

During the Rajya Sabha discussion on the working of the ministry of human resource development (MHRD), Chandra Kala Pandey, CPI(M), lashed out at the minister and demanded stop to attacks on education. She said it was sad that as many as 119 committees and commissions were set up in the last 56 years for providing education to all, but the vision remains unfulfilled. The union’s policy dominates the education system in the states. In a planned way the Hindutva agenda has been injected into our education system. Syllabi have been changed accordingly. The autonomy of UGC and other such bodies is in danger. Many teacher posts in colleges and universities are lying vacant due to shortage of funds. The WTO is trying to lord over our education and create monopoly conditions. 

In the tenth plan, only Rs 43,825 crore have been earmarked for education --- just 2.2 per cent of the budget. With this meagre budget, it is difficult even to provide the mid-day meal to children. Then what, she asked, would be the fate of our education? Children stop going to school at primary level. Little facility is provided for education for the 6-14 age group. These very uneducated children soon become child labour. Very little has been provided for adult education too. It is clear that our HRD minister’s primary concern is to toe the Sangh Parivar line, the CPI(M) member said.

Rajya Sabha has passed the Electricity Bill 2003. Jibon Roy of the CPI(M) strongly opposed the bill, saying its passage would kill seven lakh jobs in state electricity boards. Right now, 70 per cent of our rural and 24 per cent of urban people are not getting electricity. Yet the government is out to withdraw subsidies. To improve power supply, we need to improve the plant load factor, curb the theft and eliminate operational problems in a planned way. But the way the government is out to hand over power generation, transmission and distribution to private sector, will only reduce the powers of the Central Electricity Authority. Moreover, this will establish a contractor raj in the country; accidents would become a daily phenomenon. Also the question is: who will distribute power to the villagers? Roy demanded that the centre must be responsible for rural electrification and consult the states in regard to power position in general.