Debt Situation Not Alarming, Says Chidambaram
Indias debt situation is not alarming as figures of the last six years show a considerable improvement, finance minister P Chidambaram asserted in the Rajya Sabha yesterday.
India is not a heavily indebted country and the debt service ratio as a proportion of the GDP has come down to 28.71 per cent during 1995-96 as against 30.44 per cent during 1990-91, he said while replying to supplementaries.
I-T defaulters: Harshad S Mehta, Ramesh J Chauhan, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Citi bank and Larsen and Toubro Limited are among the 20 top income tax defaulters in the country as on March 31, 1997.
The minister of state for finance Satpal Maharaj told Rajya Sabha that Harshad Mehta owes the central exchequer Rs 5,439.23 crore, Ramesh J Chauhan Rs 1,188.74 crore, the ONGC Rs 1065.81 crore, BHEL Rs 292.08 crore, Citi bank Rs 265.12 crore and Larsen and Toubro Rs 184.49 crore.
Coins: The government has decided to import 700 million pieces of Re one coins and 300 million pieces of Rs two coins to overcome their shortage in the country.
The present capacity of the mints is not sufficient to meet the requirements of the coins in the country, minister of state for finance Satpal Maharaj said in a written reply to a question by Alladi P Rajkumar in rajya sabha.
Legal reforms: The government proposes to set up an expert group for legal reforms, minister for law and justice Ramakant D Khalap told Rajya Sabha.
In a written reply, he said the ministry of law and justice will constitute an expert group comprising one chairman, one member and one member secretary to review obsolete laws and regulations.
Export-import: A directorate of valuation has been set up by the government to build up a data base of prices of internationally traded goods and disseminate the information to custom authorities, union finance minister P. Chidambaram said.
VDIS: Finance minister P Chidambaram said in the Rajya Sabha the voluntaryb disclosure of income scheme (VDIS) was working satisfactorily but firmly ruled out revealing the identity of persons availing the scheme.
Anwsering a spate of supplementaries during question hour, Chidambaram said government would be in a position to assess the success of the scheme or otherwise only after it ends on December 31 this year. The scheme was launched on July one to harness black money for productive purposes.
Railways: The lok sabha passed the demands for grants for railways for 1997-98 with railway minister Ram Vilas Paswan asserting that there would be no compromise on rail safety even if it meant spending huge amounts on it.
Replying to a debate on the supplementary demands for grants, Paswan announced that closed circuit television would be set up at all major railway stations by the end of the year.
Wheat: About 92.69 lakh tonnes of wheat was procured for central pool in the current rabi marketing season up to August four, 1997, the Lok Sabha was informed.
Minister of state for food and consumer affairs Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said in a written answer to Laxminarayan Pandey and others that 92.02 lakh tonnes of wheat was procured up to June 30, 1997 as against 81.39 lakh tonnes procured during the corresponding period of the last season.