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
