On telecom FDI, Shourie asks: what happened to IB objections?

Nilotpal Basu of the CPI(M)’s opening statement ‘‘I represent the political force which made the Budget possible,’’ got some nervous glances from the Treasury benches and some hopeful ones from the Opposition.

Shourie, whose disinvestment programme became a rallying point for the Left after the election results, today gave them reason to smile: he criticised the Government’s decisions to raise FDI limits in telecom and civil aviation.

‘‘When I was in government and we were considering this proposal, the Intelligence Bureau sent a report saying this was not good for security concerns to allow direct investment above 49 per cent in telecom companies, in fact they even said that indirectly ivestment above 49 per cent should not be allowed even through the the indirect FII route,’’ Shourie told a stunned House. ‘‘Are these concerns settled now?’’ Shourie asked.

This led to Trasury benches objecting to Shourie’s divulging information which was an ‘‘official secret’’ and he was privy to in his past capacity as a Cabinet Minister.

Shourie went on to criticise Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s Budget proposal withdrawing tax exemptions from airline companies leasing aircraft from abroad. ‘‘Much is said about the pain the Congress and its allies feel about the public sector Indian Airlines (IA) and Air India (AI),’’ Shourie said. But the proposal, according to Shourie, favoured the two private scheduled airline companies — Jet Airways and Sahara while putting a burden of Rs 90 crore on IA and Rs 100 crore on AI.

Sinha criticised Chidambaram for not giving any specific schemes for any area but earmarking an omnibus Rs 10,000 crore for the Planning Commission. Taking off on PC’s reference to ‘Main Hoon Na’ in the Budget speech, Sinha said: ‘‘for AIDS, Rs 10,000 crore hai na, for employment Rs 10,000 crore hai na, for health Rs 10,000 crore hai na, for agriculture Rs 10,000 crore hai na.’’

At one point, Chidambaram refering to Sinha’s point on transaction tax questioned him : ‘‘Do you support the philosophy behind the tax, say yes or no.’’

Shourie returned the compliment by ending every point in his speech with ‘‘say yes or no Mr Finance Minister.’’

Shourie also pointed out what he called several inconsistencies in Budget documents: From Rs 290 crore ‘‘vanishing’’ between the Budget at a Glance and the Expenditure statement for rural employment programmes to Rs 40 crore disappearing from rural sanitation and Rs 4,000 crore unexplained cut in funds for telecom ministry which did not find a mention in either plan or non-plan expenses of the Budget.

He said the Budget created a ‘‘fantasy’’ through words that this government was pro-poor and cited several examples to make his point. He said the CMP, the UPA’s Bhagwad Gita, said there would be a legal guarantee of ‘‘at least’’ 100 days employment through ‘‘asset-creating’’ activities of public investment ‘‘to begin with for one able-bodied person from every rural, urban poor and lower middle class family in the country.’’

This, Shourie pointed out, changed to guaranteed employment for 100 days for one person in every rural family in the Presidential address made to the Parliament. ‘‘All references to ‘to begin with’ ‘at least’ ‘asset creating activity in public investment’ and ‘urban poor and lower middle class’ vanished by this time.’’

‘‘But most amazingly, in the Budget, the talk of employment guarantee was relegated to a Bill to be presented by the Labour minister and a food for work programme for 150 districts where existing schemes funds would be pooled,’’ Shourie said.

He said that much had been said about Self-Help Groups in the Budget but allocations were Rs 3 crore; on AIDS while Rs 259 crore had been provided on paper, Rs 18 crore was from the government and the rest from other private sources, Rs 43 crore for SC/ST which is 25 per cent of the population, minorities education Rs 50 crore ‘‘this when Arjun Singh was awake.’’