SECTION-1 - (CHAPTER 1)

FINANCE BILL 1971

Reply to debate, Lok Sabha, 27 March 1971

Mr. Deputy-Speaker, we have had for the last 5-6 hours very useful and constructive speeches made on the budget speech I delivered here. Even from the unexpected corner of the Congress (O), their leader, Shri, C. C. Desai, spoke not merely in a constructive language, but I must say, in very admirable language, and very humble language paying tributes to the leader of our party, Shrimati Indira Gandhi. That only shows the some sort of realism has dawned on all political parties after the elections. It is a good thing. Even the spokesman of the CPI (M), though calling it a capitalist budget, did actually concede some of the points made in it, though he did criticize some other aspects of it. The Swatantra member called it a swatantra budget and went on criticising as if it was a communist budget. So, it only showed that the approach indicates certain new commitments. As it is a vote on account, it continues practically the same provisions except for the arrangements that we have made for the States. For the next year we have added the Central assistance to the State Governments on the basis of the discussions that we had with them. Except that practically it is on the same basis and mostly the taxes are on the same basis. In the light of the new and fresh mandate of the people I have said in the Budget speech that we would like to reorient our approaches in certain directions, reassess the situation and reformulate policies in certain respects. This is the basic thing, and in the light of this, the commitments and the mandate, we have given some sort of a review of the economic situation as it exists today. We have indicated the strength of the economy and also the weakness of the economy.  We have not tried to conceal the weakness. Our efforts in the years to come will be to further strengthen the strong points and to remove the weakness in economy. Therefore, we have mentioned problems of agriculture and industry, particularly, the problem of prices, the policies of the financial institutions etc. You will see that we have indicated certain weaknesses also. We have not said that everything is well.

When discussing the question of agriculture, we have said that our basic weakness today is in the area of the commercial crops, particularly cotton and oilseeds. Some member did ask me the question as to what exactly we propose to do about it. What we can do in this matter is to apply the results of the scientific research made in the agricultural research centers and introduce new varieties of cotton seeds and oilseeds. That is the most important thing that will have to be done. I can assure the Hon. House that in order to make these new efforts in the scientific field and apply the scientific methods for increasing the productivity of cotton and oilseeds, no financial difficulty will be pleaded. I have no doubt in this matter because it is in the agricultural field that we have to achieve the most important breakthrough.

Discussing the question of prices, Shri. Virendra Agarwal, who is a known writer on economic problems, said that I just tried to hide myself behind the explanation that the world prices were also rising. I did make mention about the trend of world prices, but it was not to defend the rise in prices in India. I merely indicated fact of the inflationary trends that are asserting themselves in the world economy, and naturally those trends are affecting us also, we being a part of the world economy.