The BJP plans to move a number of amendments to the finance bill, in order to stress the partys Swadeshi plank and to signal that it stands for the domestic sector industries, particularly those in the small scale sector.
In all, the BJP may move about 25-30 amendments to the bill.
The partys economic committee, under the chairmanship of former BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi, has prepared a rough draft on the likely amendments to the bill. The contours of the draft would be discussed today at a meeting of the party parliamentary party executive committee.
The BJP had asked the committee, which has two other members Satish Agarwal and Sunderlal Patwa to prepare the partys stand vis-a-vis the finance bill, which was supposed to be taken up for consideration during the special Parliament session that began today.
Even after a change of the government, the role of the committee has not changed, as Prime Minister I K Gujral has reportedly told some BJP leaders that the content of the finance bill would be same as the one proposed by former finance minister P Chidambaram.
The party is sure to oppose the voluntary disclosure scheme (VDS), which sought to give immunity to persons publicly declaring their assets.
Another amendment is likely to oppose the drastic cut in the import duties, particularly for items that have symbiotic links with small scale industries (SSIs), a senior BJP leader said. Another amendment is likely to oppose dereservation of 14 items from the list of items exclusively reserved for SSI. This amendment would be critical of the recommendations of the Abid Hussain committee, which championed dereservation.
The party is also opposed to discriminatory duties on raw materials as against finished goods. The committee is of the view that duties on raw materials should be less than that on the finished goods in order to promote domestic industries and employment, the BJP leader said.
The committee is opposed to the service tax proposed in this years budget and an amendment seeking a stop to indiscriminate imposition of this tax is likely to be moved. It has concluded that imposition of service tax on items such as pandalas, shamianas, and mandaps, under the garb of widening of the tax net is ridiculous, he said.
With reference to status of service tax on food processing industries, the committee wants items like pickles and jams, where production cost is less than Rs 200 per Kg or litre, to be exempt from tax.
The BJP has no opposition to the direct tax proposals, although it wants that the proposed ten per cent tax on dividends should be imposed only on those companies that distribute a dividend of more than 25 per cent.
The party holds that most of small Indian companies do not distribute a dividend of more than 25 per cent and hence they would be saved he burden of this tax.
The committee is likely to move an amendment seeking enhancement of the Public Provident Fund (PPF) limit from the present Rs 60, 000 to about a lakh rupees in order to boost domestic saving. Such steps were necessary to raise the national savings rate beyond the 30 per cent mark.
The committee, which is likely to finalise its report in a week, received more than 200 representations some of which were from the top business houses, business chambers and other trade associations.
