People's Democracy

  THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

Subhas Ray

NDA members who joined in the finance bill discussions in both the Houses to try to derive political advantage, kept shedding crocodile tears for the people and for senior citizens in particular, and then resumed their boycott of parliament. The finance bill was passed by voice vote in both Houses. 

FINANCE BILL DISCUSSION

From the CPI(M) side, Tarit Baran Topdar, Rupchand Pal, P Mohan and Sudhangshu Sil in Lok Sabha and Chittabrata Majumder in Rajya Sabha participated in the discussion. Topdar pointed out the need for modernisation of the economy. He said the successive governments, the Planning Commissions and the high-ups of society are responsible for the failure to modernise the economy, creating the risk that India may become a satellite to or eclipsed by a great power. Topdar substantiated his contentions by touching on a variety of issues like privatisation, import duty reduction and rationalisation, employment generation, productivity upgradation, food security assurance, protection of the country’s economic sovereignty and self-reliance. He demanded an upward revision of the corporation tax. As regards taxation on petroleum and its products, a big blow has been inflicted on the people in the name of the oil pool deficit. This demands a thorough restructuring of the levies imposed on petro products. Expressing concern over the shortfall in tax revenue, he said the fact is that tax incidence on the rich is less and yet the compliance is less than others.

Topdar expressed concern over the government policy of hundred per cent FDI in the construction sector and retail marketing sector, asking that government must give up this policy. He enquired from the finance minister whether the education cess fund has been constituted in a proper form. He also demanded that the minister have a re-look into the abrogation of standard deduction for salaried employees who are the honest tax-payers.

Rupchand Pal (CPI-M) rejecting the government’s claim about change in tax philosophy said, the richer the people, the greater the income and larger the benefit as a result of the concessions given in the name of simplification of tax reforms.  The senior citizens have been duped altogether because it has been said that up to Rs 1,50,000, the tax is nil, while all the other sorts of rebates are taken away. The standard deduction is removed. The reduction in the deposit interest rates is affecting adversely the senior citizens of this country. In the case of income tax, the larger benefit have been given to those in the higher income groups but not to the ordinary working women who are dependent on fixed monthly incomes. In spite of the interest rates on deposits being brought down, people are not going to stock markets because they have already burnt their fingers. They are putting their money in the banks, particularly in nationalised banks and there is a huge growth in the deposits in the banks.

Pal then demanded, the finance minister should revisit the proposals and reassess and try to rectify the position by taking into consideration the hard realities facing the senior citizens of this country and other small savers.

In a country like India, it is the small savers who should be cared for but the finance minister is trying to promote consumerism. Pal also said in a country of more than one billion people, only one crore out of the three crore assessees pay taxes. Only 90,000 people are declaring that their annual income is more than Rs 10 lakh. Is it believable? More so when five lakh luxury cars are being sold in one year. More than 30 lakh people are going on foreign travel to Singapore, Thailand and to all these luxury places. 

In this context, Pal also referred to grand marriage ceremonies, money laundering, Mauritius route, security scam and drain of wealth from the country. We have now reached to such a situation that service tax is the only area left for the finance minister to explore because there is hardly any scope in other areas. At the end he demanded exemption of taxes on small tools, hand tools used by common artisans.

P Mohan (CPI-M) said the credit facilities from the nationalised banks are far from satisfactory. The bankmen insisting on formalities and other sureties are depriving the farmers and self-employed persons of the much-heeded credit facilities. There is an urgent need to streamline the procedure involved in extending loans by nationalised banks.  The finance minister should give up the proposal of levying tax on withdrawal of Rs 10,000 from a bank. 

Mohan urged the finance ministry to ensure that ongoing projects are not shelved because of non-clearance at a later stage. Timely allocation and release of funds must be ensured. He also said thousands of chilly growers are facing a grave situation because of sudden steep fall in prices in chilly cultivation areas including Sivaganga. There is the Minimum Support Price mechanism for many agricultural produce and goods. He asked the centre to include chilly also in this list. There is a move to shift Tamil news unit from Delhi to Chennai for want of funds that are not being provided by the finance ministry. All Indian languages must have their news broadcasts from the national capital, he demanded. He also demanded central schools in all district headquarters. Raising the issue of ban on recruitment in banks, he said there is sudden insistence on a first class degree for recruitment to clerical jobs in banks. While even IAS and IPS candidates are not expected to be first class graduates. He urged the finance ministry to render justice to job aspirants and prospective candidates from backward regions.

Sudhangshu Sil of the CPI(M) said it is a big challenge for us to fight unemployment. But in the budget there are certain sectors where the government’s decision is going to kill the existing jobs. Timber trade is one of the largest employers of urban and rural people of different categories. But wood-based products have been taxed at the rate of four per cent. On timber and sawn timber, VAT at the rate of 12.5 per cent has been imposed. Seal then requested the minister to consider all such product and charge VAT at four per cent. In the gems and jewellery sector the 10.2 per service tax imposed by the central government should be withdrawn. The imposition of service tax would result in job losses reverses to exports and mass scale unemployment. 

In Rajya Sabha Chittabrata Majumder (CPI-M), said that as some concessions have been given, more resources have to be collected to balance the budget. The question is, from which sector the resources will be collected. As the tax arrears increased from Rs 47,000 crore in 1997-98 to Rs 1,00,000 crore in 2003-04, it is a big source of revenue which the government could mobilise. In the tribunals, direct taxes worth Rs 55,138 crore and indirect taxes worth Rs 19,473 have been locked up because of various factors. Today, assessees are not paying the huge amount of taxes and raising disputes. A system has to be made that assessed amount must be deposited with the government. Specific focus has to be put on the high-end taxpayers so that substantial amounts may be collected. But the government tends to go in reverse direction. When the question of resource mobilisation comes, the poorer sections are being hit in the form of excise duty or sales tax etc. What we see is that the corporate tax collection, and custom duty for the year 2004-05 have been reduced. But the excise duty, the burden of which is being transmitted to the poor, has been enhanced. The government is bent upon collecting more and more resources from the poorer sections while the upper section is being spared.

The government is lenient to the rich with regard to debt recovery too. So the government should pay attention to these areas, he concluded.

ELECTORAL REFORMS

Lok Sabha held a short duration discussion on electoral reforms on May 4, with V Radhakrishnan, Sujan Chakraborty and K S Manoj taking part in the debate from the CPI(M) side. V Radhakrishnan said Indian democracy is the largest democracy in the world, but money power and muscle power have acquired a dominants role in our electoral process. The party which can collect huge amounts of money can put up candidates, spend money and fight the elections. There must be state funding of elections; then only can we think of a just electoral process. In our election process, there must also be a provision to recall a member who has gone against the mandate of the people.

We do have the anti-defection law which has its own defects. It allows wholesale but not retail defection. The government has to change the anti-defection law to suit the changing conditions. In this context, why should we not think of introducing proportional representation system in our country, he asked. The CPI(M) member also demanded a ban on exist polls and raising the EC strength to five.

Sujan Chakraborty said it is unfortunate that these days politics is getting condemned by the people at large. The issue of tainted ministers and MPs was undermining the faith in politicians. This does not augur well for Indian democracy.  There is also the question of chargesheeted members. In order to control this unwanted trend, Chakraborty stressed for adopting system of proportional representation and right to recall. But, more important is the issue of a social and political consensus.  The role of political parties is most important in order to set the thing right.

K S Manoj said any discussion on electoral reforms should reinforce and strengthen the people’s right to vote. The percentage of voting, year after year, is found to be diminishing.  The reason is the loss of faith in elections and also the fact the political parties as well as candidates are not fulfilling the electoral promises put before the people.  Further, there has been communalisation, criminalisation and corruption as well as corporatisation of elections.  So an ordinary man is not able to contest elections.  In order to avoid this, there should be State funding of elections.

AQUACULTURE BILL

Parliament has passed the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Bill, 2004.  CPI(M)’s Sebastian Paul, Dr M Babu Rao and Sujan Chakraborty joined the debate in Lok Sabha and P Madhu in Rajya Sabha. Sebastian Paul said India being the second largest producer of inland fish, the importance of aquaculture cannot be belittled.  With an area of about 30,000 square kilometres under aquaculture, the sector is providing employment to 3 lakh people. The apprehension of traditional fishing community and coastal agriculturists has been allayed to a reasonable extent. Today, aquaculture accounts for over 30 per cent of total world fish production. The mushrooming of shrimp farms in the vicinity of coasts is causing much sea and groundwater pollution, necessitating the Supreme Court’s intervention.  As part of the measures to control marine pollution from land based activities, steps should be taken to prevent aquaculture waste from reaching the sea. The proposed aquaculture authority has the power to regulate the construction and operation of aquaculture farms within the coatal areas; to ascertain their environmental impact; and to order removal or demolition if they cause pollution, he reminded.

Dr M Babu Rao reminded that aquaculture farming results in ecological imbalances. The most prominent is the salinity of ground water, the barrenness of the land and scarcity of drinking water. He demanded a provision to be included in the bill for protection from these hazards. Aquaculture farmers who are facing so many troubles must be supported and some provisions in this regard should be included in the bill. They must be provided bank credits as well as technical support and brought under some insurance cover. They must be provided good amounts of seed, pesticides and antibiotics at cheaper rates and cold storage facilities to preserve their produce because they are producing very high quality prawns.  Since 90 per cent of the produce is exported or marketed outside, they must be provided with good marketing facilities.

Sujan Chakraborty said once the bill is passed and becomes an Act, it will interfere in the entire coastal management process and procedures. The bio-diversity in the coastal areas is huge.  The authority must take a realistic, comprehensive view of all the issues.  Since it is a lucrative business, the question of aggression from MNCs may also come, he cautioned.  We should see as to how to checkmate that aggression. We have to create cooperatives of fishermen and self-help groups, providing them bank credit and getting them remunerative prices. Providing communication in the coastal and remote areas would help them at the time of disasters. 

In Rajya Sabha, P Madhu said safeguarding the interests of the peasantry is very much neglected in the bill. The farmers of aquaculture in the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are facing a big problem of spurious seed supply.  Bogus companies are supplying spurious seeds and the peasantry is unable to prosecute them. No steps have been taken to check these spurious seed and nab the suppliers. A major problem is that virus has spread all over the coastal areas. The ministry has not taken any responsibility for research and supply of medicines in this regard. So it is doubtful whether the Act would be able to achieve the stated aims and objects. Many aquaculture farms in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have been closed because of lack of remunerative prices. So, the government should take the responsibility for providing remunerative prices, seeds, feeds and various medicines to the farmers in this regard.

May 8, 2005