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Sir, now, I come to the public sector. Everybody has talked about it. There is reckless and senseless sell-off of all the public sector units. Assets of the people built over 50 years are being auctioned like junk in the market place. Pandit Nehru had called them "the new temples of India." They are busy these days burying their heads excavating the ancient temple sites and leaving the PSUs in shambles and in ruins.
I suppose and I hope that he has made provisions in his Budget this time for massive programmes on excavations of ancient sites to discover what lies below. Perhaps, we should have a special head also for excavating what was below Parliament House and what was below Rashtrapati Bhavan sooner or later! Sir, the Business Standard reports and I quote: "PSUs registered a 66 per cent growth in profits last year" -- correct me if I am wrong -- "with a turnover growth of Rs. 20,491 crore. Their contribution by way of excise, customs duties, dividend, interests on loans, etc., rose by 2.81 per cent. And, yet they are sold. Even the profit-making ones are just thrown away at next to no prices."
He concludes with one more thing. For everything, we try to mix politics. I do not want to hurt the feelings of anybody. When my Andhra Pradesh friend tried to increase the power tariff, there was so much of protest from the other side. Similarly, when the States ruled by the BJP or the Congress try to do this, other political parties would try to take advantage of it. This is how we try to bring politics at every stage. We are unable to mobilise the resources within the country itself. He further says and I quote:
Madam, on the housing sector, the Finance Minister has given certain concessions. He has given exemption from income tax upto Rs. 1,50,000 for the interest deductible from housing loans and that too, he has given that concession with retrospective effect. I would like to read that particular paragraph. I do not know what exactly is the reason for the Finance Minister to give that concession with retrospective effect. That concession was earlier given by Dr. Manmohan Singh. I quote:
"To maintain its present momentum of growth, it is proposed that interest deductible under income tax up to Rs. 1,50,000 for construction or purchase of a self-occupied house/property be continued. In addition, it is proposed that income from housing projects for construction of residential units of prescribed specifications approved by the local authorities upto March 31, 2005 will now be exempted from income tax, thus, not only has the limit with regard to year of sanction earlier frozen at March 31, 2001 now been extended but the benefit of the scheme also made available irrespective of the year of completion."Was it necessary? I never expected this from him. Was it necessary to give such benefits from retrospective effect? I do not know what was the pressure. I do not want to drag the name of Shri Rajnath Singh who had been appointed to review the Kelkar Committee’s Report. I do not want to drag his name and state what his recommendations were. That is not my concern. My only point is, when he wants to tide over the problem of resource crunch and when he wants to overcome the problem of unemployment, these are not the sort of concessions that one should give in the Budget.
The hon. Minister has provided a sum of Rs.800 crore for that and if he removes that whether his poverty alleviation programme is going to be successful. That is all I want to ask.
I can quote a number of instances. Take the case of agriculture. I am not going to deal with this subject in detail today. I will take it up on 13th because there is a discussion on this under Rule 193 on that day and on that day the hon. Finance Minister will not reply to that debate.
       

16.00 hrs. You are not going to reply to that discussion on 13th. I would like to mention only one word. In respect of the agricultural sector, last year, out of the total allocation of Rs. 2,187 crore, the amount spent that year was Rs. 1,687 crore. This year, the allocation is the same, that is Rs. 2,187 crore. How are you going to achieve your goal, priorities? You have identified the priority sector, panch priorities. Is there any additional effort to find out the resources? The answer is, ‘No’. On the one side, as you have said, the direct tax concession is more than two thousand nine hundred and odd crores of rupees. Who is going to get that benefit? You have given Rs. 2,955 crore tax bonanza for rich and middle class direct tax payers, and you have raised revenue of Rs. 3,294 crore from indirect tax payers. It is ultimately going to burden the common man. If you raise the indirect tax revenue, it is going to hurt the common man, and the poor man is going to suffer. And much more than that, I would like to mention another two points. … (Interruptions)