The Hindu : Jaswant Singh silent on rollback

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 07, 2003

National

National

Jaswant Singh silent on rollback

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 6. Despite provocation from not only the Opposition parties but also from the Bharatiya Janata Party and some of the NDA allies, the Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, maintained silence in the Lok Sabha today on the fertilizer price increase issue.

Initiating the general debate on the Union budget 2003-04, the Deputy Leader of the Congress, Shivraj Patil, termed it as a "bitter pill quoted with sugar,'' and demanded a rollback of the fertilizer price increase as it would impose a huge burden on the farmers who were already reeling under drought conditions.

From the BJP, the former Minister, Dhananjay Kumar, lauded most of the budget proposals "as it gives something to everybody'' in difficult circumstances, but ended his presentation with a request to Mr. Singh to reconsider the price increase.

Though the Minister is not obliged to reply to points while the debate is on, there have been precedents when budget proposals have been amended by the Finance Minister right at the beginning of the general debate. These were done with a view to blunting the Opposition criticism as also to address general criticism within and outside Parliament.

Mr. Patil, in his presentation, criticised the budget proposals for being inadequate to take care of poverty, enhance employment opportunities, boost agriculture, strengthen the rural and social sectors and promote industrial activity. He was particularly critical of the Government for failing to keep its commitment to create one crore job opportunities every year and quoted the Economic Survey to point out that employment potential was falling in the country.

He also criticised the Defence and some other Ministries for their inability to exhaust their annual allocations, saying it was "inexcusable.''

Mr. Kumar lauded the Finance Minister for providing a boost to industrial activity and employment generation through the proposed investment of Rs. 60,000 crores in infrastructure development and also appreciated the additional credit pipelines being proposed for the agriculture sector.

He appreciated the special attention to the textiles, gems and jewellery segments, saying they had a huge growth potential.

B. B. Ramaiah of the Telugu Desam Party also commended the budget and counted the various plus points.

However, he too urged Mr. Singh to reconsider some points, including the high non-Plan expenditure, the low share of States in tax revenue, the spreading industrial sickness and poor support to warehousing and cold storage facilities.

The debate is scheduled to continue tomorrow and the Finance Minister is expected to reply on Monday.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National