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Insurance bill to be introduced in current LS session

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today stated that all the long-pending legislations, including the Insurance Regulatory Authority bill, would be passed in the current session of Parliament.

''All the major legislations are being considered by the Standing Committee and are ready for discussion. We are now in a position to get them through in Parliament. This includes the IRA bill,'' Sinha told the media on the sidelines of a post-Budget meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The current session of Parliament will be on till May this year.

Besides, the minister also expressed confidence of meeting the divestment target of Rs 100 billion set in the Union Budget 1999-2000 despite the government's decision to defer sell-off in Indian Oil Corporation. ''The IOC deferment would not have a major impact on our divestment targets and we are confident of meeting them.''

The government had deferred the proposed divestment of five per cent of its stake in IOC till the next fiscal due to the depressed prices of the IOC scrip.

Sinha further said that several other PSUs are being considered for strategic sales. However, he refused to name them. ''We will go in for largescale strategic sale in the coming year. We would not like to lose any time on the implementation of the decisions the government has taken. This is the first time we have talked about privatisation and we are not trying to shy away from it.''

He said the government would launch a largescale strategic sale exercise in the public sector companies in the coming fiscal.

The country, he said, should move towards a central rate of excise and value added tax. ''I am not in a position to undertake an exercise of tinkering with the excise duties. I feel the best direction as far as excise is concerned will be to move towards VAT.''

According to Sinha, faced with major revenue concerns, the government had brought about only minor rationalisation of duties on the customs end. ''The rates have either remained where they were or have come down.''

On the zero-duty structure, he said a committee has been appointed to go into details of the same. ''They are looking into which sectors have to be exempted. Besides, they are also studying as to what kind of a levy has to be imposed on the exempted ones.''

He further assured the industry that, if need be, necessary changes would be made in the policies and procedures. ''Budget is not the end of history or the end of a dialogue between the government and industry. We are willing to listen to your suggestions and if need be, will even change the policies and procedures.''

Sinha also urged the industry to take a holistic view of the Budget in the light of the various constraints which the industry was facing in the form of declining exports and the tremendous fiscal situation. ''We have to keep the background in mind, which acted as a constraint and stopped us from doing many things which we wished to do.''

He further appealed to the industry to fix a time period for readying itself to meet the competition from the outside world.

''We have to take stock of our own costs, practices and reach a stage where we are not afraid of competition. Let us fix a period after which we will compete with the best in the world.''

He reiterated that the 10 per cent surcharge levied in the Budget would be abolished by the year-end.

Stating that the surcharge is temporary in nature, he said, ''If revenues pick up, the government will do away with these levies.

''Let 1999-2000 be a good year for the economy and by the end of the year, I promise they (the surcharge) will go. Better revenues will give me enough strength to do away with these.''

He said that the government is moving towards simplifying the tax structure in the country and making them friendlier. ''Even the mindset of people in the tax department is being changed and we are working towards reducing harassment to a minimum if not completely eliminating it.''

UNI

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