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Agencies

PANAJI, April 13

EVEN as the BJP National Executive today asked the Government to roll back some Budget proposals and restore the 20 per cent tax rebate under Section 88 for incomes up to Rs 5 lakh, the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, said changes, if any, would be announced during the discussion on the Finance Bill in Parliament.

Without going into which tax proposals would be rolled back, Mr Sinha said, "The BJP National Executive has come out with certain suggestions and, whether they are accepted or not, I will tell Parliament during the discussion on the Finance Bill."

There was nothing new in amendments being brought in the Finance Bill, he said.

"If you look at the history of Finance Bills, you will see every Finance Minister has made some changes. After you present the Budget, you get representations from many groups... even I had made changes in the past. If you want to call it roll-back, you can do it," Mr Sinha said.

At the National Executive, several members had demanded a roll-back of the 0.5 per cent cut on interest rates on small savings schemes saying the middle-class and retired people would be badly hit.

The executive asked the Government to reconsider the proposed service tax on insurance and evolve a system for providing direct fertiliser subsidy to farmers.

Releasing the economic resolution, Mr Jagdish Shettigar, Convener of the BJP's economic cell, said the Finance Minister had promised to consider the members' suggestions at the time of passage of the Finance Bill.

The resolution recommending reconsideration of the Budget proposals came after a discussion in which some MPs, including Mr Sahib Singh Verma and Mr V.K. Malhotra, were critical of the proposals relating to the middle-class and salaried sections, which they wanted to be reviewed. In the economic resolution adopted on the second day of the executive meeting, the party favoured continuation of the subsidy support for cooking gas and kerosene. In its ``suggestions'' for consideration of the Government, the executive said since the administered pricing mechanism on petroleum products had been phased out from this month, it should clearly distance itself from the pricing process.

In another area, where party MPs had been critical of the Government for harming the interests of the pensioners, the executive said an attractive monthly income scheme could be started exclusively for senior citizens who could invest their savings and lead a retired life peacefully through interest earnings. This should be expedited, it said. The executive said the criteria for filing income-tax returns by telephone owners should be deleted.

It may be restricted to mobile phones (other than WLL which is as good as a landline connection), it added.

The five-page resolution acknowledged that the Budget contained certain measures that may appear to be harsh to certain sections.

However, it said, in the present fiscal situation, these steps had become essential.

While appealing to the affected sections of society to co-operate with the Government at this hour of crisis, the Executive Committee appealed to the Government to set an example by following austerity measures by cutting down wasteful expenditure.

The resolution said steps should be taken to minimise issue prices of PDS foodgrains through efficient and decentralised food management and also, flexible distribution so that the poorest of poor would have access to food security.

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