NEW DELHI, Feb 3 ? The north-eastern region has little to cheer about the interim Budget presented by Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh here today, as the only concession aimed at benefitting the region was a package envisaged to bail out the ailing tea industry.
Assam and other States in the region have again been over-looked as far as setting up of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) pattern institutes are concerned. Extending the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), the Finance Minister announced that one medical college each in Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkand, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal will be upgraded to the level of AIIMS.
The Prime Minister had already announced the establishment of six hospitals on the AIIMS pattern in the government sector. In the Northeast a super speciality hospital, NEIGRIMS in the line of AIIMS is being set up in Shillong. A sum of Rs 70 crore has been provided for the Institute in the interim Budget.
As for the sops for the tea sector, the Union Finance Minister, acknowledging a crisis in the industry, said that tea was an important agro-processing industry. ?The tea industry is employing a large number of our citizens in North Bengal, Assam, the North-east and some of the southern States. Currently, this industry is beset with many problems. I had therefore asked the Indian Banks Association to prepare a revival package,? Singh said.
?A special tea term loan repayable in five years with a moratorium of one year is to be provided. In the case of small tea growers, banks have agreed to extend fresh working capital limits up to Rs. 2 lakh at an interest rate of nine per cent. In addition, steps would be undertaken to examine the feasibility of a debt amelioration scheme in the tea sector, too, he further announced.
It may be recalled that MPs, cutting across political lines, have been pressurising the Commerce Ministry as well as the Finance Ministry to take special initiative to bailout the tea industry, passing through one of its worst crises. But majority of the Assam MPs were unhappy with the revival package.
Said Paban Singh Ghatowar, ?We are not satisfied with the package, what we wanted were short-term and long-term packages. But what we got instead is a piece-meal initiative. It is not an effective measure.? Adopting the same line, Santosh Mohan Deb said that it was not a good package. ?We had been asking for a bail-out package for medium and large tea gardens, but there was nothing for them?, he claimed, adding that almost half of Congress MPs had met the Finance Minister on the issue.
Meanwhile, the interim Budget for the part of the fiscal year 2004-2005 has provided a budgetary allocation of Rs 1,192.70 crore for the Department of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) marking a marginal increase over last year?s allocation of Rs 1027.58 crore (revised). A sum of Rs 445 has been provided for schemes of the North Eastern Council. The grants to North Eastern Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi) are proposed to be hiked to Rs 24.50 crore from last year?s allocation of Rs 15.40 crore.
The Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) has provided Rs 20 crore each to Brahmaputra Board as grants-in-aid and for flood control in Brahmaputra and Barak Valley rivers. For the new scheme for protection of Majuli Island and Dihang Projects, Rs 15 crore has been earmarked, while the Pagladiya Project has been sanctioned Rs 40 crore.
Meanwhile, Ghatowar described the Interim Budget as an ?election budget?, maintaining that it was full of empty promises. The Assam Congress MPs claimed that the Budget might be of no value at all as the Finance Minister has cleverly skipped the mention of fund sources. ?It would be practically impossible to implement this Budget,? remarked Santosh Mohan Deb.
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference later, Finance Ministry officials claimed that one of the reasons for the shortfall in collection of Excise duty was due to the exemption given to the Northeast. The region lost Rs 220 crore from overall Excise collection due to such exemptions, they said.