Mr. President, I have collected some figures of expenditure incurred in various provinces on the “transferred” and “reserved” departments and with your permission, I beg to present those figures to this House, so that the House may know how deplorable the situation is. If we look at these figures, what do we find? I am sure everyone in this House will be sorry to find that such an important province as Bombay should occupy the lowest place in the order of its relative expenditure on the “reserved” and “transferred” departments. I, therefore, submit, that it is a grave scandal. Surely this is not the way in which the finances of an important presidency like the Bombay Presidency should be managed.120 I wish the honourable Finance Member had paid more attention to the “transferred” departments than he seems to have actually140 paid to them. From the figures, it is evident that the “reserved” departments are systematically over-fed and the transferred departments160 are systematically starved. Sir, what good is an Indian Finance Member if he is not to respond to the wishes of his countrymen. There is a general clamour for progress on all hands. The honourable Finance Member knows how very insistent the clamour is. But unfortunately he has so far done nothing to lead us to hope for anything at his hands in the future.
Sir,
not only are the finances badly managed, but I submit that the financial
position240
of this presidency is indeed very serious. If you examine the financial
position year by year to the present day, you will find that every
year there is a reduction of the surplus; so much so that instead of having280
surplus Budgets we have exhausted our surpluses and we have now reached
a period where the Budget discloses a series of deficits. You see from these
figures that the financial position of this presidency is deteriorating
year by year, and320 I submit that having regard to the
commitments made by the Government, the position in time to come is
indeed going to be very serious. Sir, you know the loan arrangements will
have to be paid off very soon. Some360 arrangement will
have to be made for the repayment of that loan, that is bound to cast a
heavy burden on the already exhausted finances of the presidency. Sir, this
Council and the Government have been committed to universal compulsory primary
education. This Council and the Government are also committed to the implementation
of the policy of prohibition. I do560 not think any honourable Member of the Government
is going to deny that these three items are going to make a very heavy call
upon the finances of this presidency. When our finances are deteriorating
year by year even without these three items, I cannot quite imagine what will
be the state of affairs when we begin to give these480
items a practical shape. Finding myself in this situation, what surprises me
most is that all this does not seem to trouble the honourable Finance Member at
all. He does not disclose that he is aware of all these commitments.
In the financial statement he has submitted he does not show that
he is conscious of these obligations. He is merely carrying through a hand-to-mouth
policy, a policy for the day without any thought for tomorrow. There is no
outline700
of a general policy which will improve the future exigencies of the
situation. After me the deluge seems to be his watchword. He is merely
trying to meet the deficit of the Budget. He is calculating upon what he
might600
be able to gain out of the reduction in the famine insurance grant.
But I ask him in all seriousness whether these paltry gains are going to
really take us a long way in the financial stabilization of the
presidency?
640 I think, it would be a mistake to suppose that they
can. Either the honourable Finance Member must assure us that there
are sufficient possibilities of economy in the administration of this
presidency which will carry us through, or he should tell us definitely that
we shall not get what we want unless we have recourse to taxation.
I respectfully700 refer to the speech made yesterday by His
Excellency the Governor. In that speech, His Excellency pointed out that
the720
Legislative Council was entirely responsible for taxation, that
it was within its powers to impose such taxation as was necessary. I
admit that the Legislative Council has the power of taxation. But I also submit
that the initiation in the matter must come from the Government. It
is the Government that must suggest what taxation it wants. Has the
Government done so? The Government on the contrary is absolutely sitting silent.
It does not propose to tell us what it800 is going to do. It cannot be said
that the Government has not got the data to work out a plan. We all know
that the Taxation Enquiry Committee has submitted a most exhaustive report,
with endless recommendations which ought840 to suffice for the initiation of a new
and adequate financial policy. I am sure these are lying on
the table of the honourable Finance Member, but nothing seems to have
been done in the matter at all. I say that the situation is indeed very
serious and it is high time the honourable Finance Member make up his mind to
deal with it in a statesmanlike manner.
Mr.
Speaker, Sir, this is the second financial statement which
has been presented by my honourable friend the Finance Minister. It
would therefore be natural to expect this Budget to be subjected to greater
scrutiny and closer examination. Before stating what I think of this Budget,
I cannot forget the fact that960 this Budget has been commended by
all those Members of this House who have so far taken part in the980
discussion. The honourable Finance Minister must have felt a certain amount of
satisfaction that his work has secured praise from all those who have spoken.
But I must confess that I am very much surprised that this Budget should
have been really commended in the way in which it has been commended
by speakers who have preceded me. I have devoted a certain amount of time for
the consideration of the financial statement which he has presented, and I have
no hesitation in saying that this is not only the paltriest Budget
that I have ever seen, but it is1080 a hollow and insubstantial
Budget. It discloses no vision of the future and no recognition of the problems
with which this presidency is faced. This may appear somewhat extravagant,
but I am presently going to substantiate what I am saying. 1120 There is one item
for which I may praise the Government, but that praise, unfortunately for my
honourable friend, cannot go to him. It must go to the honourable Home
Minister. I refer to item No. 45 in the new scheme. This is an item which
provides an additional expenditure of Rs. 36,000 for the augmentation of the
police force. The relationship that existed between the Members who are sitting
on the other side and the police force before they1200 took office and
became part of the Government is a well-known thing. It is certainly
a matter for congratulating the honourable Home Minister for demanding
the money and the honourable Finance Minister for finding it. In my
judgment, he certainly needs the police force. He certainly needs their
loyalty, for we all know what he is engaged in doing with1260 the police force,
and we recently had an illustration of what use the police force is being made
of. 1280
I refer to the firing that took place at Dharavi. I am sure that the present
Government, which has shown very little sympathy for the advancement of the
cause of labour, may have to indulge in greater use of the police force against
the labour class. That the Congress Ministry should have come out in its true
colour is a matter of congratulation, but I must stop there because in the rest
of the Budget there is nothing for which the Government can take
any credit.
The
first thing to which I would like to draw the attention of this House is
what I regard certain examples of financial impropriety. When one looks
at the Blue Book which has been circulated, one notices an admission on
the part of the Government that there is no scheme in existence for any
of these items which are included in the financial proposal. All these heads on
which this expenditure is intended to be1440 incurred are still
in incubation. They themselves do not know what are the purposes on which this
money is to be spent. The second thing is that this House has not passed
any of the legislative measures on which this expenditure is supposed to
follow. Sir, this expenditure which practically asks for a blank cheque from
this House with the fullest liberty for the Members of the Government to
spend it on anything they like so long as it falls under the main heads
such as education, police etc. amounts altogether to Rs. 31 lakhs. Now, if one
takes into consideration the fact that the total amount of the new items which
have been added by the honourable Finance Minister to the existing Budget
comes to about 1.16 lakhs, one can very easily realize the amount of money
which this Government proposes merely to lift from the hands of the House and
spend in the way it wants to spend. 1600
