PDS: Antony to lead team to Centre

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NOV. 26. A delegation led by the Chief Minister, Mr. A. K. Antony, would go to New Delhi to apprise the Centre of the State's concerns regarding the move to discontinue the statutory rationing system, the Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, Mr. G. Karthikeyan, told the Assembly today.

Replying to questions from Mr. Benoy Viswam, Mr. P. Narayanan, Mr. N. Rajan and others, he said the Centre had not taken any decision on discontinuing the statutory rationing system or closure of FCI godowns.

Kerala's rationing system was dependent on the rice procured by the Centre from surplus States and supplied through the FCI, he said.

The Union Finance Minister, Mr. Yaswant Sinha, had given a firm assurance that in the case of States such as Kerala which did not have a procurement system of their own, the existing system would continue.

Denying that there was any lethargy on the Government's part in taking up the issue, he said that at all the meetings called by the Centre in this regard, either the Chief Minister, the Food Minister or the Finance Minister had participated and conveyed the State's position.

The State required 2.24 lakh tonnes of rice a month for the PDS, he added.

Settlement Commission

The Finance Minister, Mr. K. Sankaranarayanan, said the Government had decided to set up a Settlement Commission to expedite decisions on the cases pending in the Tribunals and Sales Tax Department.

A person not below the rank of District Judge would chair the Commission.

Replying to questions from Mr. Dominic Presentation, Mr. P. T. Thomas, Mr. M. Murali and others, the Minister said a total of Rs. 2,709.08 lakhs worth sales tax evasion in 15,497 cases had come to light in the current fiscal year.

Till September, fines totalling Rs. 1,046.48 lakhs had been imposed on defaulters.

The Finance Minister said the State had borrowed a total of Rs. 2,0039.10 crores from various agencies during 1996- 2001. An amount of Rs. 5,596.35 crores was paid as interest alone for this amount.

There was a shortfall of Rs. 90 crores in turnover tax during the current fiscal year, he said.

A sum of Rs. 1,800 crores was being spent every year towards payment of pensions.

The Government had an open mind on finding ways to reduce the number of official posts at the higher levels.

The banks in the State had amassed a total of Rs. 22,263 crores as deposits from NRI Malayalis till June this year, he said.

This amount was being utilised by banks in the same way as other bank deposits.

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