Finance Minister, Shri P. Chidambaram chaired meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry, here yesterday and sought suggestions for the General Budget 2006-07. After introducing the new MoS for Finance, Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal, the Finance Minister invited views of the Members especially on Plan expenditure, FRBM Act and revenue and fiscal deficits.
Shri Chidambaram in his opening remarks said that in 2005-06, the plan expenditure upto December 2005 is 66% of the BE as compared to 56% of last year. The five-year moving average is 59%. It is a good sign that the Union and the State Governments are more focused on plan expenditure, he added.
Most of the Members emphasized the need for more attention to rural areas especially to the plight of farmers and increase in investment in agriculture including increase in subsidy to agriculture, lowering rates of interests for agriculture sector, introducing turnover tax to fund agriculture, specific incentives and faster reforms as well as modernization of agriculture. Other suggestions given by the Members include: lower import duties on coal and aluminium, accord full infrastructure status to tourism and more exemption to this industry, identify 5-10 technologies/industries for focused development, fasten reforms in power and rural electrification, introduce PFRDA Act, no tax on expenditure, relook at FBT, schemes for retired and old people with different tax structure, encourage private investment in infrastructure, strengthen food processing and water harvesting and water linking schemes, restructure CST and VAT rates, improve private sector participation in higher and technical education, contain inflation especially on common commodities, float tax free bonds to meet expenditure on REGP, avoid double taxation like on dividend of companies, specific schemes and incentives for skills development to increase self-employment, tackle unemployment amongst urban unemployed youth, concessions to biscuit industry, concrete steps on social security schemes, revitalize PDS and review duty structure on oil and oil products.
Responding to observations made by the Members, the Finance Minister said that 52 lakhs PAN numbers were issued so far this year and out of these, 99% were issued within 10 days. He said Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Company has been incorporated but no firm proposals have so far been received from the State Governments. Our revenue and fiscal deficit and inflation have come down which is very good for boosting investment and growth, the Finance Minister added. On roads and highway sector, the Minister informed that 81% of the BE has been utilized by December 2005.
|
|
Minister of State for Finance, Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal and senior officers of the Finance Ministry were present. Among the Parliament Members who attended the meeting include S/Shri R. Prabhu, Jivabhai A. Patel, Prahlad Joshi, Vijaya Kumar Khandelwal, Lakshman Singh, Dr. C. Krishnan, Mohammad Salim, M. Ramadass, Narsingrao H. Suryawanshi, Tarit Baran Topdar, Gireesh Kumar Sanghi, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rajkumar Dhoot, B.J. Panda, S.M. Laljan Basha, Lalit Suri, Abani Roy, Dinesh Trivedi, Bimal Jalan and Arun Shouri.
Pre-Budget Discussions