Congressmen urge FM to usher in reforms with human face

During the pre-Budget consultation with Finance Minister P Chidambaram at the party headquarters today, many party leaders including Congress Working Committee member AK Antony and AICC office-bearer KC Lenka raised the issue of subsidies urging the FM to continue them.

Their demand came in the backdrop of the government's recent move to cut food grains subsidy which had to be put on the backburner due to protests from different quarters, including the Congress.

During the 90-minute long meeting, 25 Congress leaders spoke at length about the party's expectations from the next union Budget. They sought that urgent steps be taken to unearth the "parallel economy" of black money. One of the suggestions in this regard included tax free infrastructure bonds with a lock-in period of four years.

AICC Secretary Praveen Davar sought incentives on savings because of the growing concern over falling interest rate. He also sought the imposition of expenditure tax.

Another AICC Secretary JD Seelam demanded a new scheme of "social animators" for capacity building of the poor so that they know where the money earmarked for their welfare actually went.

Probably taking a cue from Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's plans for the state budget, the AICC Secretary suggested that the allocations for the SCs/STs in the union Budget should be proportionate with their respective population.

The partymen wanted the next Budget to have the spirit of the economic resolution adopted at the plenary session in Hyderabad last month as also the National Common Minimum Programme.

Advocating economic reforms with a human face, they strongly advocated focus on rural employment guarantee programme, rural infrastructure, handloom sector etc.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi had also had a detailed discussions with the finance minister on Monday evening and she was understood to have emphasised on the need for more allocations for social sector programmes.