Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise to speak on the Finance Bill.

I think, there is one issu e which has been bothering some honourable members since yesterday. It is about one error that had crept in one of the pages of the Budget. When I came to kno w about it, I myself was concerned about it. The moment we realized this, we ca me to Parliament and presented a corrigendum in both the Houses of Parliament. If the honourable Member had bothered to telephone anyone in the Ministry, we sh ould have clarified that this was a printing mistake. Many Members in the Opposition have raised the issue of poverty. Now, anyone wh o is familiar with the manner in which the Government of India collects statisti cs is aware of the fact the National Sample Survey Organization collects the f igures of poverty. The fact remains that this Organization has conducted the su rvey on the basis of large samples for the last five years. This is the manner in which the Government of India of India has been collecting its statistics eve r since and even today. We have to go by the findings of this survey in the mat ter. Sir, it has been mentioned that there will be zero excise duty on the pr ocessing of fruits and vegetables. This is the encouragement that has been give n to the processing of perishable agricultural produce. As far as management o f the food economy is concerned, as I have said earlier, we will discuss this wi th the State Governments and try to arrive at a consensus that will be acceptabl e to all of us. I would like to bring to your notice that there are five States which are badly affected by drought. We have decided to give one lakh tones o f food grains to each State free of cost. The State Governments can spend this food under the Food for Work Programme. This is meant for the poorest of the poo r. There are about one crore families in this country for whom we will make foo d grains available. This is the new system which has already been inaugurated b y the honourable Prime Minister. Sir, while listening to the various speeches in the parliament, I find that ther e are two streams of criticism. One criticism is that this Budget has been a gi ve-away Budget. It has been said that this has been prepared with an eye on the elections. Another criticism that has been made is that it has not addressed a ll the important concerns of the nation. It has been said that it has inadequat ely dealt with employment generation or with rural development. I feel that it has been a Budget relevant to the needs of the economy and I would call it a ver y timely Budget. I compliment the Finance Minister for bringing in common man s Bu dget. I have no doubt in my mind that the way the Finance Minister has been abl e to extend various scheme for the people living below the poverty line, it will go a long way in giving further momentum to the economy. I would like to bring to your kind notice the issue of small-scale indus tries. As the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Industry, I had to deal wit h hundreds of petitions. We have received representations to the effect that hu ndreds of small-scale industries have nearly been closed down. We should always keep in mind the health of the small-scale industries. As far as possible, we should always prevent the chances of closure of small-scale industries Another point is about education. There is no mentioned of education in the entire document of his speech. The Finance Minister has touched every othe r sector of development. But I may point out that there has been an omission ab out education, I would make a strong plea to the Finance Minister to consider a scheme that selects ten or twelve universities in India as model centres. We sh ould then give them the necessary financial assistance to develop themselves in to model universities in the country which can attract students from foreign cou ntries. This will play a very useful role in exporting education and thereby ea rning foreign exchange. If these universities are given adequate support by the Government, I am sure, they can also become a source of inspiration for other u niversities in the country.

Sir, as far as I am concerned, I can say that I have carefully gone thro ugh each and every item and tried to analyze its effect. Unfortunately, as the tax structure stands today the indirect tax is our major source of income. Natu rally, therefore, it has to cover a large number of items. However, while selec ting these items, I have taken great care to see that the lower income group, th e poor man is not touched as much as possible.