Press Briefing Tuesday, 7 July 2009

Shri Manish Tewari addressed the media today.



Shri Manish Tewari said that since yesterday there were reactions that the budget was not bold enough. The leaders of the Left while giving their reactions stated that this was a budget for the “khas aadmi” and not the “aam aadmi”. He said that before pointing out the bold initiatives taken in the budget, the Congress party would like to dismiss the above criticisms and would like to reiterate that the central message of this budget was to ensure the inclusion of the poor, disadvantaged, minorities, SC and ST into the mainstream of development and progress. He said that the Finance Minister took particular care to ensure that the burden of this social augmentation should not be placed on the middle class or the business class.

Shri Manish Tewari said that the BJP and the Left should give a closer look at the budget. Only then would they find that the reforms proposed by the Finance Minister were revolutionary. He said that he could recount at least ten such proposals that would fall in the category of fundamental reforms. For example the Finance Minister has brought the issue of reforming fertilizer subsidy on the front burner. He said that in order to reform the pricing mechanism for petroleum products the Finance Minister had constituted an expert committee. He said that the National Food Security Act had been mentioned in the budget along with the Unique Identification Authority of India which would ensure that every Indian should have a multi-purpose identity card. Besides this, the Finance Minister has committed that within 45 days he would come out with a new simplified tax form (SARAL II). Further tax exemptions have been linked not to profitability but with investments which is bound to have far reaching effects. He then mentioned that the Finance Minister had taken a huge initiative in order to make electoral financing transparent.

Shri Manish Tewari said that for a long time there were talks about a dual model in Goods and Service Tax (GST) and for the first time it had been declared in yesterday’s budget that GST would now have a central and a state component, which was yet another huge step. He said that an initiative had been taken to encourage bio-diesel to reduce the pollution caused by petrol and diesel. He further said that he would like advice his friends in the BJP and Left that if they read the budget carefully they would find initiatives that are bold and reformist. He said that in relation to “big bang reforms” history had given a clear message that change must always be made incrementally and to the extent that it can be absorbed by society.

To a question Shri Manish Tewari said that in a global economy that had seen a slowdown in the last quarter there may have been an imperative need to revise the projections which had been made when the interim budget was presented. So the Railway Minister was well within her right to revisit the projections which had been made. And if she wanted to bring out a white paper on the functioning of the railways, then such transparency should be welcomed and encouraged and should not be seen as a reflection on her predecessor or anybody else. He said that the concept of a white paper was to bring out a factual situation and not to make a value judgment one way or the other and so if the underlying assumption was that this white paper had a pre-determined direction or was intended to target certain individuals then he would reject that thesis.

To a question on Varun Gandhi’s security Shri Manish Tewari said that there was a Multi-Agency Task Force that evaluates the threat perception and after making such evaluation if it is found that there was a need to increase the security cover around a person then the same is done. This has been done for several leaders and Chief Ministers from the opposition parties and so the accusations of discrimination leveled by them were baseless he said.








(Tom Vadakkan)

Secretary, AICC