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Sunday,
March 2, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Poll debacle: BJP appraisal
today Budget wolf in sheep’s clothing? Fertiliser price rollback ruled
out AIADMK scores big win in byelection Marandi’s removal ruled
out  Lalchand Mahto, Baccha Singh, Madhu Singh, Ramesh Singh Munda, Jaleshwar Matho, Samta Party leader Lalan Singh and JD (U) state chief Goutam Sagar Rana, the five rebel ministers of Jharkhand, talk to mediapersons where they were jointly demanding a new leader of the NDA government or else threatened to topple the Marandi government in Jharkhand on Saturday. — PTI photo |
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Muslims oppose move on prayer
timings PM calls on President Raising Day celebrated
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Poll debacle: BJP appraisal
today New Delhi, March 1 The meeting, which would also discuss organisational issues, would be attended by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani. Talking to newspersons at the party headquarters, BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu said reasons for the party’s defeat in Himachal Pradesh included the anti-incumbency factor, the desire for a change and the rebel factor. Accepting the poll verdict by the people with humility, Mr Naidu admitted that the outcome was “disappointing”. Meanwhile, a three-member team, comprising Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley, Delhi BJP President Madan Lal Khurana and party in charge of Himachal Pradesh Om Prakash Kohli has been appointed by Mr Naidu to go into details of the party’s performance in the state. “Our setback in Himachal Pradesh is more due to organisational weakness and there is a need for introspection. I will be asking the party high command to do so,” Mr Khurana, who was in charge of Himachal Pradesh election campaign, said. While Mr Khurana called for introspection, Union Minister Shanta Kumar, a bitter critic of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal, attributed the defeat to the state government’s failure to fulfil the promises made to the people and said voters had reacted in anger. However, party’s senior leaders were not upset with the outcome as they were attributing the defeat to the anti-incumbency factor. A senior leader said appropriate lessons would be drawn and if anti-incumbency had worked here then it would also work in BJP’s favour in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, where many more Lok Sabha seats would be at stake. A senior leader pointed out that one of the main reasons for the party’s poor performance had been the rebel factor as in many Assembly seats, BJP rebel candidates had taken away the party’s traditional votes. Mr Khurana said this setback should help the party to chalk out the future course of action for the assembly elections in several states, slated for later this year. BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan also attributed the party’s defeat in Himachal Pradesh to an anti-incumbency wave and the presence of a large number of rebels in the fray and said the party should ascertain if anything went wrong in the selection of candidates. He said the victory of rebels at some places, or their finishing as runners-up proved that the party’s choice of candidates was not correct. “It shows that the party’s assessment of seats and candidates was not right,” he said adding that tickets should be distributed in as such a manner that it does not lead to rebels jumping into the fray. Asked who was to blame for the faculty selection of candidates, the BJP leader said he was not blaming any particular person. “Selection process involves assessments from the local level to the national level and therefore the entire party is responsible if anything goes wrong,” he said. Meanwhile, RSS sought to downplay BJP’s debacle in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections saying that it was a purely political battle and not an ideological clash. “It was not an ideological battle, but a political one. The Congress proved to be better organised and united and they won it,” RSS joint spokesman Ram Madhav said. |
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Budget wolf in sheep’s clothing? New Delhi, March 1 Buried in the euphoria of Finance Minister Jaswant Singh’s announcement of tax sops in direct taxes is the strong cascading fineprint of imposing taxes at the rate of eight per cent on as many as 64 services. Service providers are expected to pass on the entire burden of the tax to the final consumer following the decision of the Government to charge services at the rate of eight per cent — a good three per cent higher than the existing five per cent. The services that come under this net include: beauty
parlours, gyms and health centres, interior decorators, cable operations, laundry services, rail travel agents, life insurance service providers, photography studios, tour operators, recruitment agencies, broadcasting agencies, stock brokers, advertising agencies and courier agencies to name a few. Finance Minister Jaswant Singh appears to have premised
his argument on the basis of the increasing share of services in the country’s GDP during the last decade. Moreover, on the revenue front, the assumption seem to be that the fall in direct taxes will be more than offset by the gains in indirect taxes. In fact, the proposals in the budget on direct taxes is expected to result in a revenue loss of Rs 2,955 crore while a gain of Rs 3294 crore is expected on the indirect tax front during 2003-04 vis-a-vis the last fiscal year. Experts were of the view that the Finance Minister and his team has pinned their hopes on services to bail out the revenue shortfall that may accrue on the direct tax front. The share of services in the GDP has gone upto 48.8 per cent in 2001 from 12.8 per cent in 1980. This increase in the share of services is strikingly similar to the corresponding rise in services’ share in the GDP in many other Asian countries between 1980 and 2001. In most of these countries there is an increasing trend in the share of services, to a large extent matched by a corresponding decline in the share of agriculture. According to advance estimates, in the current fiscal year (2002-03) the services sector has recorded a growth of 7.1 per cent as compared to the previous years. While industry recorded a growth rate of 6.1 per cent, agriculture registered a negative growth rate of (-) 3.1 per cent. Within the services sector, trade, hotels, transport and communications were the most robust clocking a growth rate of 7.8 per cent. Experts pointed out that with the services sector accounting for about half of the national income, an across-the-board increase in the cost of services would effectively reduce disposable income at the hands of the individual. Services as a sector is demand driven and any cost enhancement carries the danger of reducing the income generated in the sector. |
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Fertiliser price rollback ruled out New Delhi, March 1 “There are some concerns raised over fertiliser prices over the issue of 1-2 per cent hike in prices. Of the total tapestry of the Budget, to pluck a single thread will be unfair to the entire structure of the budget,” he told PTI in an interview the day after his Budget presentation. Pooh-poohing the criticism from political parties that fertiliser prices have been hiked in a drought year, he said “it can’t be linked to drought because fertilisers are not used by rainfed cultivators. It is used mainly in irrigated land.” Concerned over the burgeoning subsidy bill at Rs 50,000 crore, Mr Jaswant Singh said food subsidy alone accounted for Rs 28,000 crore, while fertiliser subsidy amounted to Rs 12,700 crore and petroleum subsidy Rs 9,000 crore. Regarding the huge fertiliser subsidy, he said the question was whether the subsidy was actually reaching farmers or going to the fertiliser factories. “Fertiliser subsidy should go to the right place,” he said, adding that after all the hike in prices was just 1-2 per cent, which was nothing when compared to the total subsidy bill. Asserting that the budget has done quite a lot to boost agriculture, Mr Jaswant Singh said “the amount that has gone to agriculture, plantation and the like was enormous.”
PTI |
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AIADMK scores big win in byelection Chennai, March 1 The AIADMK candidate, Mr.S.N.Neelamegavarnam polled 56,945 against 39,453 votes secured by the Congress nominee, Mr R.Mahendran. The victory margin was 17,492. The byelection was caused by the death of sitting member, Mani Nadar, who represented the late G.K.Moopanar’s Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC). |
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Marandi’s removal ruled
out New Delhi, March 1 Mr Marandi was specially summoned to New Delhi for the meeting. Mr Naidu said the Central leaders would hold meetings with Mr George Fernandes and Mr Nitish Kumar, and also chief of the JD(U) Sharad Yadav to resolve any differences in Jharkhand. |
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Muslims oppose move on prayer timings Dhar (MP), March 1 Dhar Urs Committee chairman Nisar Ahmed said the Centre’s proposal to extend prayer timings on Tuesdays and to allow taking rice and flowers for puja was unacceptable as it was against the established norms of the monument where namaz had been offered for a long time. Union Tourism and Culture Minister Jagmohan, in a letter dated February 26, to state Chief Minister Digvijay Singh had asked his view on opening the Bhojshala on Tuesdays. Mr Ahmed claimed that no representatives of the Muslim community was present at the all-party meeting and also at the meeting of the organisations held yesterday on the directive of state government to discuss the Centre’s proposal.
UNI |
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PM calls on President New Delhi, March 1 The meeting lasted 50 minutes, Mr S.M. Khan, Press Secretary to the President, said in a statement here today. |
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Raising Day celebrated New Delhi, March 1 The origin of the APS dates back to 1856 when the first field post office accompanied the British Expeditionary Forces to Persia. It was during World War II that volunteers were drawn from the Department of Posts as combatants to run the field post offices. |
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