The Appropriation Bill And The Finance Bill

The Appropriation (No. 3) Bill, 2012 And The Finance Bill, 2012

Thank you very much, Sir, for having given me this opportunity. To begin with, I may be permitted to quote a few headlines -- from one of the financial newspapers  which show our country's economic situation today. These headlines are, and I quote, 'Gloom to Deepen: India Inc', 'Moody's Adds Insult to Injury, Scissors Rating of 3 Banks', and 'Rupee Stays in a Hole, Sinks to 53.97 vs Dollar'.

Sir, today, every sector in India, whether it is steel, cement, telecom, power or infrastructure, is facing huge financial imbalance, mainly due to indecisions at various levels of the Government. Unfortunately, for the past couple of years, the Government has been reeling under scam after scam like 2G scam, Commonwealth scam, 
iron ore scam and so on. Because of indecision at the highest levels

of the Government, the country has been losing its direction which is reflecting very clearly in every economic activity and which is also directly resulting in weakening of our rupee. Sir, corporates, because of this indecision, are forced to refer their cases to CDR for financial restructuring, which does not augur well for an economy that has seen an unprecedented growth in the last couple of decades. If this trend continues, I am afraid, ultimately, all our banks and financial institutions, which are the backbone not only of our industry but the whole of our economy, may land in big trouble losing their credibility in the international market. Ultimately, the country will lose its credit rating. Sir, as we are all aware, yesterday, LIC's rating was downgraded. A few months ago SBI's rating was also downgraded. These are great institutions of trust and faith. They are the leaders in their respective sectors. Downgrading of the leader in a sector is a clear reflection as to what is happening in that sector. Sir, post- Independence, all our Indian entrepreneurs have worked very hard and created industrial growth which has helped all the banks in developing their own networks.

Sir, today, our farmers want support for sustainable farming but not doles. But Government after Government has preferred to give doles, for obvious reasons! Subsidies on fertilizers, oil, power, etc. are nothing but doles. Instead of giving these doles, Government should formulate good and balanced policies, have a level-playing field in business, so that different sectors of our economy can improve their financial health and, indirectly, will help the country's economy. The Government has to come out with aggressive plans, particularly in reducing imports which can go a long way in helping the farming community in improving their technology, agricultural implements and in yield-improvement technologies. The Government has been continuously silent about any aggressive policy in regard to production of renewable energy which can produce a lot of power, whether hydel or solar.

Sir, today many banks and Government departments are not taking any decision due to the 'fear of the unknown' which is a well- known fact. Unfortunately, we all agree that there is a complete breakdown and a paralysis of our decision-making process. It looks as if the Government is surviving with the support of ventilator. The 
country have had many scams and many problems like various by-elections, demands for smaller States, etc. I strongly request that the Government should deal with all these scams, etc. by appointing a task force exclusively for this purpose, without affecting the growth of the country.

Sir, in every developing economy, some systemic failures are bound to happen. But, we have to deal with such kind of failures in a matured manner and not in haste.

Sir, in any case, the time has also come for all the political parties to work with cooperation and coordination rather than confrontation and competition in the interest of the country. In any case, this Bill is a fait accompli approval. Thank you.

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The Appropriation Bill And The Finance Bill

The Appropriation (No. 3) Bill, 2012 And The Finance Bill, 2012

Thank you very much, Sir, for having given me this opportunity. To begin with, I may be permitted to quote a few headlines -- from one of the financial newspapers  which show our country's economic situation today. These headlines are, and I quote, 'Gloom to Deepen: India Inc', 'Moody's Adds Insult to Injury, Scissors Rating of 3 Banks', and 'Rupee Stays in a Hole, Sinks to 53.97 vs Dollar'.

Sir, today, every sector in India, whether it is steel, cement, telecom, power or infrastructure, is facing huge financial imbalance, mainly due to indecisions at various levels of the Government. Unfortunately, for the past couple of years, the Government has been reeling under scam after scam like 2G scam, Commonwealth scam, 
iron ore scam and so on. Because of indecision at the highest levels

of the Government, the country has been losing its direction which is reflecting very clearly in every economic activity and which is also directly resulting in weakening of our rupee. Sir, corporates, because of this indecision, are forced to refer their cases to CDR for financial restructuring, which does not augur well for an economy that has seen an unprecedented growth in the last couple of decades. If this trend continues, I am afraid, ultimately, all our banks and financial institutions, which are the backbone not only of our industry but the whole of our economy, may land in big trouble losing their credibility in the international market. Ultimately, the country will lose its credit rating. Sir, as we are all aware, yesterday, LIC's rating was downgraded. A few months ago SBI's rating was also downgraded. These are great institutions of trust and faith. They are the leaders in their respective sectors. Downgrading of the leader in a sector is a clear reflection as to what is happening in that sector. Sir, post- Independence, all our Indian entrepreneurs have worked very hard and created industrial growth which has helped all the banks in developing their own networks.

Sir, today, our farmers want support for sustainable farming but not doles. But Government after Government has preferred to give doles, for obvious reasons! Subsidies on fertilizers, oil, power, etc. are nothing but doles. Instead of giving these doles, Government should formulate good and balanced policies, have a level-playing field in business, so that different sectors of our economy can improve their financial health and, indirectly, will help the country's economy. The Government has to come out with aggressive plans, particularly in reducing imports which can go a long way in helping the farming community in improving their technology, agricultural implements and in yield-improvement technologies. The Government has been continuously silent about any aggressive policy in regard to production of renewable energy which can produce a lot of power, whether hydel or solar.

Sir, today many banks and Government departments are not taking any decision due to the 'fear of the unknown' which is a well- known fact. Unfortunately, we all agree that there is a complete breakdown and a paralysis of our decision-making process. It looks as if the Government is surviving with the support of ventilator. The 
country have had many scams and many problems like various by-elections, demands for smaller States, etc. I strongly request that the Government should deal with all these scams, etc. by appointing a task force exclusively for this purpose, without affecting the growth of the country.

Sir, in every developing economy, some systemic failures are bound to happen. But, we have to deal with such kind of failures in a matured manner and not in haste.

Sir, in any case, the time has also come for all the political parties to work with cooperation and coordination rather than confrontation and competition in the interest of the country. In any case, this Bill is a fait accompli approval. Thank you.

Budget

Budget (General)

Sir. I rise to discuss the Budget 2011-12. The Economic Survey 2010-11 had anticipated that the Indian economy would register growth of around 9 per cent, plus or minus 0.25 per cent, in 2011-12, almost reverting to the pre-crisis levels achieved during the three-year period, from 2005-06 to 2007-08. Now, the economy is expected to register a growth rate of 6.9 per cent in 2011-12 as per the Advance Estimates released by the Central Statistics Office on 7th February, 2012. According to the Economic Survey, a part of the reason for the slowdown lies in global factors, particularly the crisis in the Euro zone area and near-recessionary conditions prevailing in Europe, sluggish growth in many other industrialized countries like the USA, stagnation in Japan and hardening international prices of crude oil which always has a large effect on India and, of course, also due to domestic factors. Ultimately, the Survey suggested that there is need to be innovative in terms of policy. But, the Finance Minister failed to spell the innovation in the policies in the Budget.

At sectoral level, growth is estimated to be 2.5 per cent for 2011- 12 for agriculture and allied sectors as against 7 per cent achieved in 
2010-11. This has to be seen against the backdrop of continuing losses to farmers and farmers’ suicides. This is in spite of the fact that India has the largest agricultural land area in the world. The country is not able to encash this situation. China has lesser agriculture land area than India and still it produces more agro products than India. Productivity per acre is much more there than India. There are no policies to protect the farmers and increase productivity in agriculture and related areas including dairy. Whenever and wherever there is higher production, the Government allows it to rot due to lack of storage and transport facilities. The ultimate sufferer is the farmer from any angle. The Finance Minister fails to address appropriately innovative measures as spelt out in the Economic Survey.

The hon. Finance Minister has said that the total agriculture credit for 2012-13 will be increased to Rs. 5,75,000 crore. It is surprising to note that nothing much has benefited the farmers through this credit in the previous years. There is a total flop of this scheme. There must be some problem in the implementation. I am given to understand that not even 50 per cent of the farmers are benefited by the credit. There is no let-up to the farmers’ suicides.As a matter of fact, the farmers are not looking for this kind of creditsor doles. They are expecting to have some sustainable measures for supporting them. Today, I have read that Bt. Cotton is one of the reasons for the suicides. It is not giving proper yield, leading to losses to the farmers. This has been accepted by the Union Government itself in a note to the States. There should be a total review of the high yielding varieties. The Government should have been focused on improving the efficiency in the agriculture sector.

In regard to fuel prices, this Government has increased the petrol prices several times during the last year. The Government should think of balancing economy with fuel prices and the resultant growth. I do not know what the Government is doing to increase the indigenous resources so that India does not have to depend much on foreign imports. We are still not doing anything on the renewable sources and there is no imprint of the Finance Minister on this front.

Credibility is the next issue. Ever since the 2G Scam has been detected, this Government has lost credibility on all fronts.

Now there is a plethora of scams being faced by this Government and the latest being the coal mining scam involving a loss of Rs. ten lakh crore. I do not want to comment on this latest scam as the final report of the CAG is yet to come. Because of the scams, it appears that the Government is in inertia and the leadership is weak.

The Economic Survey projected fiscal deficit to fall to 4.5 per cent in 2011 and 4.1 per cent in 2012. But I would like to mention that the total deficit of the Centre and the States crosses nine per cent. India being a developing economy, with around 50 per cent people below the poverty line, how can the country withstand the deficit while taking welfare measures? Here comes the role of innovative measures as spelt out by the Economic Survey.

Health is another important indicator of human development. People largely remain outside the public health facilities as the quality of services in government hospitals has not improved. People mostly depend on private healthcare providers. But what about the BPL families? I am given to understand that the so-called middle-class families sell their properties for treatment. But there is no answer to this from the Finance Minister. The expenditure on health increased from 1.25 per cent in 2006-07 to only 1.30 per cent in 2011-12. The total budget for the Health Ministry during 2012-13 is Rs.30,700 crore as against Rs.25,250 crore last year. The marginal increase is not going to make significant improvement in the health infrastructure. The NRHM Scheme started by the Government is fraught with several flaws and is infested by corruption and scams. Special budgetary provision is necessary to be provided as a one-time measure for overall improvement in the health infrastructure. This has never happened so far. Unless people are healthy, how can they work, earn and survive? The Finance Minister should have focused more on improving sustainable growth and sustainable measures in agriculture, healthcare and education. He is completely silent on it and there is no comment on these issues. With this, I oppose the Budget. Thank you, Sir.

Maiden Speech & The Energy Conservation

Maiden Speech & The Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2010

Hon. Vice-Chairman and respected Members, I rise to speak on the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2010. Since this is my maiden speech, I would request you to allow me a few minutes to introduce myself before speaking on the Bill.

Sir, I am humbled by the great privilege of being a Member of this august House, which has seen stalwarts among its Members like Prof. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Prof. N.G. Ranga, Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar, hon. Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, and our present Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. I pay tributes to Shri N.T. Rama Raogaru, founder of the Telugu Desam Party, for providing leadership and identity to the people of Andhra Pradesh. I fondly remember his encouragement to the young people from all sections of the society. I thank Shri Nara Chandrababu Naidu, our party President and the legislators of Andhra Pradesh who have elected me to this august House.

Sir, this august body, where Members are drawn from diverse fields of arts, politics, eminent professionals, academics and industry, makes it unique in our great democracy. I come from an industrial background, which I had started at an early age. After doing my Post Graduation in Engineering in 1986, I had started a small-scale industry. This grew into a group of industries which presently employs 6000 people, known as the Sujana Group of Companies. The name 'Sujana', I am proud to say, was coined out of the first few letters of the names of my beloved parents, Shrimati Susheela and Shri Janardhana Rao. My grandfather, an IPS officer, retired from the CBI and my father retired as Superintending Engineer in the Government of Andhra Pradesh. My great grandfathers were agriculturists. So, the evolution of my career is in rural areas and, therefore, I am blessed with exposure to all major spheres of the society.

Sir, the Preamble to our Constitution says, "We the people of India give this country to ourselves..". To me the word "We" means all the people of India. I stressed on the word "all" because in the nature, the jungle law that rules is the survival of the cleverest; in the organized and civilized society, the law has to protect the meek from the strong. This was stated, over and over again, by the framers of our Constitution. The Preamble and articles 38(1), 38(2), 39B, 39C and 46 talk about reduction of inequality in income and giving equal access to resources of the country. Just as a blind man cannot thank us for giving him a mirror, the poor man cannot thank us for not implementing the equality, the mandate of the Constitution. Thus, the essence of the Constitution is equality to be achieved through a conscious attempt to help those in society, who cannot help themselves. A fine example of this is the philanthropic efforts of successful business people like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. I commend the cause of charity in its full sense espoused by them. Perhaps, they believe that what they give,they have, and what they keep, they lose. These kind-hearted men are practising what Gandhiji said that rich people are the custodians and trustees of their wealth for the benefit of the poor. Since such kind hearts are not many, I would vote for a very visible hand of the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary to make laws and policies of affirmative action and vigorously implement them.

Sir, there is a State sanction behind every citizen's security and legitimate earning. The State, in turn, gets its authority and legitimacy from the citizens through the social contract concept developed by political philosophers like Thomas Hobbes and Locke and Rousseau. In a democratic country like India, periodic elections to State and Centre constitute the social contract and needs to be continuously strengthened.

Sir, while appreciating the efforts that are being made for rationalization of direct and indirect taxes, a time has come to restore estate duty which would be a step towards reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. Sir, for quite some time, I thought, eliminating poverty and creating wealth are the same. But, on being more matured, I realised that the creation of wealth will necessarily not eliminate poverty or reduce the gap between the rich and the poor.

Sir, the Government works for making a difference in the living standard of the people. It means that ensuring roti, kapda and makaan alone is not sufficient. Ensuring only them implies that we are not elevating the general...

 Sir, while ensuring the above, we should target good health, education and creation of individual opportunity as our objective and guiding principle for governance.

Sir, having dwelt upon my political philosophy, I now move forward to discuss about the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2010. The energy conservation as we all know is a wide topic that most of our hon. Members spoke. It broadly encompasses efficient utilization of electricity and fossil fuels. The current Bill in discussion appears to only cover the energy efficiency measures with a view to conserve power. Although it is important to address this issue, it would be desirable to adopt a holistic approach to include conservation of fuels and ecosystems.

Sir, the current installed capacity of 1,31,000 MW is required to be increased to about 9,50,000 MW by 2030 as stated by the hon. Prime Minister recently. To create this gigantic future electricity generating capacity, it is estimated that a massive Rs.60,000 billion investment is required. However, as the ho. Members are aware, this expenditure can be far from reality considering several Budgetary constraints. Therefore, I am of the opinion that part of this problem can be addressed through strict adherence to the measures proposed to be implemented through this Bill.

Sir, having gone through the proposed amendments, I suggest the following changes. Section 14(C) of the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, after the proposed amendment prohibits issuance of notification within six months in normal cases and one year in special circumstances. Even after the proposed amendment, there is no obligation on the part of the Government to issue notification prohibiting the use of energy inefficient equipment after six months or one year, as the case may be. Once a product is notified under section 14 (A), any equipment not conforming to prescribed norms should be automatically prohibited from sale, import, etc., after six months or one year, as the case may be.

A new section 14(A) is proposed to be inserted. As per this proposed section, in case there is a saving of energy by the designated consumer, an energy saving certificate would be issued. This can be sold to a designated consumer who is not complying with the energy consumption norms. There may be a case that for reasons, a designated consumer may not be in a position to encash these certificates. Therefore, a clear mechanism may be put in place to enable immediate encashment of such certificates.

In addition to the above suggestions, I propose the consideration of the following steps to make the initiatives of the Government for energy conservation more effective and meaningful. (1) target the sector where there is a scope for energy savings (2) Accelerate and incentivize indigenous R&D for developing energy efficient appliances and systems and provide fiscal incentives to industries established to absorb such energy efficient technologies; (3) Conversion of inefficient AC agricultural water pumps to either more efficient AC pump sets or DC pumps using permanent magnets; (4) All street, municipal and Government installation to switch to LED lighting mandatorily, in a phased manner, like in the United States of America, which has been following it; (5) To meet rural lighting requirements with solar and LED light combination which is cheaper and more sustainable, and the technology is fully proven, compared to current solar/CFL combinations; (6) Include use of LED luminaries in Lamp Bachat Yojana Scheme; (7) Reroute the perennial kerosene, MNRE subsidies towards promotion of sustainable energy efficient systems; (8) Weak aluminium conductors to be recycled/re-conducted or replaced to reduce the transmission and distribution losses; (9) Strictly enforce energy efficient norms and prohibit sale/import of energy inefficient devices; and (10) As is the adage, ‘power saved is power generated’, there should be a provision to incentivize virtual energy generation system.

Sir, with the above suggestions, I conclude my maiden speech and am grateful to the Chair and the hon. Members of the House for providing me this opportunity. Thank you very much, Sir. 

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