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The Central Government is renaming the railway station in the same way some of the Central Ministers are using the photographs of their party leaders in the official stationery, belittling the National Symbol, the Ashoka symbol. They are denigrating the National Symbol. Sir, this is not an isolated incident.
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Sir, much has been said about today’s topic by several speakers and in the process some very important issues are being flagged and highlighted.
The Chinese Government claimed yesterday that the number of Indian troops present in the Doklam area in Bhutan is down from 400 to 40. One wonders what the truth is.
In a democracy like ours, there should be free flow of information. Issues of vital importance which concern our neighbours, transgressions of the border line, movement of militants, separatists and various other problems which arise in these areas have to be looked into.
The foreign policy perspective of our country is the total or sum total of events and experiences of the past and the geopolitical realities of today.
While our neighbourhood remains an important target via what has been stated by the Ministry of External Affairs, the neighborhood policy. But yet, India’s priority should also ensure regional security, civility and peace, strengthening the economic structure through a robust outreach in the region and tune in with regional organisations to interlink the region
and keep India’s strategic importance and relevance so that we can catapult a strong India into the centrestage of the world.
As far as foreign policy goes, we have observed, and in fact even our party, the All India Trinamool Congress, has always supported, the Government of India’s foreign policy initiatives, starting from 1998 to the present day. It’s been a positive approach because, as one or two of the speakers have mentioned earlier, we stand behind the foreign policy initiatives taken by the Government of India.
But due to the sensitivity of certain border areas, especially in the Eastern Sector today, we are compelled to express our dissatisfaction with the way things are being handled. The integrity of our borders has to be ensured, because they are porous and volatile and militant groups and other separatists always seek to destabilise not only border areas but also the rest of our country.
West Bengal is a border sensitive State, and any disruption in the State could have serious security concerns. Here I am talking about the Chicken’s Neck Corridor or the Siliguri Corridor which is a gateway to Guwahati, Sikkim, Assam and Bihar.
It also includes important road corridors like NH 31, NH 31A and the railway system. After the 1962 war with China, since the early 60s, the military intelligence has repeatedly reflected to the Government that due importance is not being given to the security and safety of the Chicken’s Neck Corridor. Even recently, our CM Mamata Banerjee has pointed out this forgotten issue, it’s very vital for the eastern sector and for the development, protection of the people in the border areas.
Since the late ‘60s till date, I do not think that we have information as to whether the military presence – the BSF or the CRPF – have increased their vigil in these areas. Till recently we have observed that because of separatist activity in the Darjeeling Hills, and because of the fact that we have evidence that these separatists are being funded, are being encouraged, are being supported by such organisations which are inimical to the safety and security of India.
We have seen the world over that whenever there is any militant activity or, look at the history of any country, we have observed that there is always an external support to these activities. The Government of Bengal, under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, has, in the recent past, repeatedly urged the Central Government to secure the proper interest and to provide the men and materials that are required to obviate free movement across the border. Even the BSF has serious responsibility where the border is concerned.
The Government of Bengal had asked for extra CRPF to be posted in Darjeeling but unfortunately, for some unknown reason, this police force was not provided. Accordingly, it is a matter of great concern that this area, which is not only an integral part of Bengal but of the entire country, has not yet been flagged as an area of concern by the Government of India. This kind of a dichotomy in the foreign policy would in the long run be counterproductive to the country as a whole. The Government of India’s policy of ‘Neighbours First’ has not borne any fruits.
If we look back or turn back the pages of history, we can observe that we are not into outright non-alignment at this point. We are now shifting towards a kind of a policy in which we are building strategic partnerships throughout the world. But today one matter of great concern with regard to Nepal and Bhutan is the huge currency – about Rs 3000 crore – that they are holding in old Indian currency notes.
Whenever there is any cross-border activity we have noticed, the people who move along the border – whether it is officially or unofficially – there is always a talk of an exchange rate. What is the Indian rupee worth? We have found over the years that the Indian rupee commands respect and even many transactions in these countries are dependent on the Indian rupee. Goods and services are bought with Indian rupees. It’s an extension of the Indian economy.
Now after demonetisation, the Government of India has not clearly stated their position and this is causing lot of heart-burning in these two countries. There is a deep resentment and relations are being soured. If ‘Neighbours First’ is the policy then neighbours must come first and we need to not buttress the borders. We need to also see that these insidious movement of bad elements, this dependency of the country on the economic activity in India is something to be proud of and we should build that bridge which will ensure that these neighbours do not take an inimical view to our trust.
China’s transgressions in the mountains are very well known. We are quite surprised to notice that in 1962, certain areas of India, like Tawang in the north-east, were transgressed by China. These were the dark days of Indian politics of India’s civilization, yet we have not learnt our lessons. Even to this day, we are not strong enough in that particular area where previously we had to fight an uneven war.
The Chinese are very active in Sri Lanka; they have taken over the development of a port. In fact they are going to take over the development of another port and we have found that this deal by the Chinese was made possible because of the fact that the Sri Lankan Government wagered a large amount of money to the Chinese and that’s why they were able to swing this deal. We on our part have not been active enough in the economic scene. We need to make our presence felt in the neighbouring countries, especially Sri Lanka, and we should see that our development, our arms and ammunition with the Indian Army, as you seem to have observed, is short and is not prepared for contingencies.
India needs to serve her potency and work towards tending to its frontier regions, development, military modernisation and regional economic integration to face future challenges.
Thank you.
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Thank you Chairman Sir for allowing me to speak on NABARD Amendment Bill, 2017. Agriculture is a primary source of livelihood for 60 to 70 per cent of the population but its contribution to GDP is only 17.5 %. Agricultural growth in India is not constant; it is volatile. Though there is gradual increase in various grain productions, farmers’ economic status is very poor and beyond imagination. Improvement of agriculture should the main focus for rural development.
NABARD Act was formulated in 1981 which came into force in 1982. NABARD offers innovation with regards to formulation and monitoring of schemes monitoring etc. NABARD also helps in policy making, planning the implementation of the credit mechanism. It helps to carry out agricultural and other economic developmental activities. NABARD is investing mostly in the agricultural sector with growth rate of 12.16%. Till now the authorised capital of it is Rs 5000 crore and now with this amendment it will go up to Rs 30,000 crore.
This amendment will help introduce new credit products, new linkage and development, new clients and will help to give lower rates credit to kisan. The primary effect of the Bill is to transfer the share of RBI to Central Government. As per the original Act, the Central Government and the RBI together must hold 51% share in the bank. The new amendment transfers RBI’s Rs 20 crore stake to the Government in return of the equal amount.
And another point in the amendment is updating the Act. The present legislation is out of date with respect to industry ombudsman and the amendment brings it in line with the existing practice. The Bill replaces updated terminology – at ‘small scale industry and terminal and decentralised sectors’ with the term ‘microenterprises, small enterprises and medium enterprises’ as introduced by the MSME Development Act, 2006.
The Bill also proposes that NABARD will provide credit and other services to enterprises with investment upto Rs 10 crore; an increase from the previous figure of Rs 20 lakh in the original Act. Amendments in the Bill substitute provisions and definitions from ‘The Companies Act, 1956’ and replaces them with the corresponding updates and references from ‘The Companies Act, 2013’. Through the proposed amendments, existing conflicts of interests are removed.
The Act is updating, reflecting and changing the laws consistent with other legislations and industrial practice. I support this Bill. Thank you very much.
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Sir, I will be very brief.
Earlier, in the city of Chandigarh, which is a Union Territory under the Government of India, entertainment tax and entertainment duty was collected by the Centre. Now, the Centre has decided that the collection of entertainment tax and entertainment duty will be passed on to the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. This will mean a gain of Rs 17 Crore to the Corporation which will be necessary because Chandigarh is a beautiful city; it needs money for its upliftment.
Having said that, let me also state that our party has always been in favor of introducing GST. We had some reservation about introducing it in a hurry on the July 1, 2017, which is why we did not attend the midnight session of Parliament.
All I want to say is that now one month has elapsed since July 1; there are some hiccups, there have been complaints. I hope that all the decisions will be taken in the GST Council – which has been taking decisions unanimously – and there will be moderation in the tax rate. These five tax rates of 0, 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent should not remain and especially regarding those matters on which there is contention. For example, women have demanded reduction of tax on sanitary napkins. Mr Jaitley explained that, on the issue of GST on cloth, etc., the consensus reached in Parliament will be looked into.
With that Sir, I support the Bill. It is good for the country.
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Sir, I am glad that the Finance Minister and Leader of the House is here; maybe he will give us an explanation.
The SBI reduced rates on savings in bank accounts, holding a balance of less than Rs 1 crore, by 0.5%. Sir, more than 90% of bank accounts in India are people who have less than Rs 1 crore. Sir, SBI, in their explanation, have said, that after demonetisation there was a huge inflow of funds; about 50,000 bank accounts were being opened every day, and about Rs 1.5 lakh crore was moved into the system. But there were no borrowers in the system because after demonetisation economic activity was low. This is the SBI’s view.
Sir, what impact has this had? Sir, the first impact, the obvious impact, is that small depositors, especially senior citizens, pensioners are all affected. When they are affected, what would they do as alternative? This is a sure fire way of opening up and encouraging chit funds. Everyone talks about chit funds but no one talks about Pearl Chit Fund.
Let us have an investigation on how many people were investigated in Pearl Chit Fund and which Government and which people were involved. What action was happening outside North Block in Delhi and in Punjab? It is very convenient to talk about Odisha and Bengal when it comes to chit funds. Sir, through you I want to caution the Government that this decision will also increase the infiltration of chit funds.
And worse still, the commercial banks also going to be affected. Sir, the rate for the fixed deposits in early 2014 was 10%. I was talking to some senior relatives of mine, they were getting 10%, 9% till a few years ago. Now that is down to less than 6%.
Sir, post demonetisation, 1.5 million jobs have been lost. Sir, now even the NITI Ayog Vice Chairman has suddenly resigned; we wish him luck in his new assignment. No matter what the Government tries to say, he has resigned after three years. Sir, these are the big issues post GST and demonetisation.
The Opposition parties have been trying to discuss these issues. NPAs worth Rs 7 lakh crore have still not been recovered and you are hurting the poor people. Sir, we need a discussion on this; the Government is running away from a discussion. For three weeks we have given notices, Sir, please look into this, take this up and let us discuss it.
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Thank you, Speaker Madam. In the last meeting of our Standing Committee, the CWC visited the Durgapur barrage in October, 2016. They suggested and recommended that there should be immediate desiltation and as well as cleaning of the Damodar river near the barrage area.
In 2013, Bengal Government held discussions with the central agency of Central Water and Power Research Centre and decided to have a Damodar Action Plan. I would like to ask the Hon Minister, whether she is making a plan for the Damodar Action Plan and the desilting of the river so that the Damodar barrage can work.
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Sir, I rise to speak on the Banking Regulation Amendment. I have given a notice opposing the introduction of this Bill and I had also given a Statutory Regulation against the Ordinance. Why had I opposed the introduction? I had said that this is not a necessary Bill. Nor was there any hurry in issuing an Ordinance. I shall substantiate my points with what I had said at that time.
Per se, the Bill may not be bad. But I will show that this Bill is unnecessary under existing laws. The Government could have taken steps against NPAs. There is no doubt that the problem of NPA has reached heights from which Government will find it very difficult to extricate itself. The total assets of the State in terms of gross NPAs and restructured standard advances of scheduled commercial banks was Rs 9.64 lakh crore on December 31, 2016. Share Rs 9 lakh crore se zyada hain. And if you really look at the total NPAs during financial year 2016 for public sector banks, which was 9.83 per cent of gross advances, or almost 10 per cent of advances to the public sector banks, measures seem to have been taken.
But, as a Member correctly pointed out, what was the Government doing for three years as the NPA rose? And we will talk about Vijay Mallya. I will give you the names of 12 top NPA people, the total ‘toxic’ 12. The total NPA amount is Rs 7.7 lakh crore. Which are the big companies? Bhushan Steel has NPAs of Rs 44,000 crore, then there are Lanco Infratech, Essar Steel, Bhushan Power and Steel, Alok Industries, Amtek Auto, Monnet Ispat, Electrosteel Steel, Era Infra Engineering, Jaypee Infratech, ABG Shipyard and Jyoti Structures. The total NPAs of just 12 companies amounts to Rs 2,53,729 crore. It is these 12 companies against whom action has been taken under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. But unfortunately this has the possibility of getting stuck in court because there is already one case in Ahmedabad High Court. So whether this will really sort out the problem, I am not too sure. That’s why I am saying that the Government had several instruments in its hand for three years, even before this law was enacted. It had both legal and non-legislative loan recovery options. It could have done loan restructuring, corporate debt restructuring, joint lenders’ forum, five-is-to-twenty-five scheme, strategic debt restructuring or sustainable structuring of State assets. These are the non-legislative ways open to the banks.
The other thing is, there is already DRT – for recovery of debts due to banks and financial institutions. There was a surface act under which asset reconstruction companies could have taken over assets. And then in 2016, we had the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is a good law.
Now, this Ordinance or the Bill – what new thing do they bring? That the Reserve Bank may issue directions to a bank to go for insolvency proceedings. Now what does the Insolvency Law say? You first appoint an insolvency professional, then he forms a lenders/creditors’ committee, and then the creditors’ committee gets together and takes a decision on the bank. The ultimate arbiter is the National Company Law Tribunal. So this is the procedure; and the advantage of the Insolvency Code is that you have to settle the matter within 180 days. So it is a time-bound resolution of the problem of insolvency. But the Government hurried with this law for these 12 companies whose name the Reserve Bank did not disclose. I have got it from the internet.
However, the main question remains – is the Reserve Bank an appropriate authority? I am totally against the Reserve Bank of recent times, post-Raghuram Rajan, because this is the Reserve Bank which, till date, has not been able to count the notes which were deposited during demonetisation. So why should we have confidence in such a Reserve Bank? Our Standing Committee has repeatedly asked the Reserve Bank Governor – why don’t you say how much money has come in? My information is that they are still counting; they say they have to bring in machines from abroad. This Reserve Bank is totally inefficient and incapable. Nobody knows how much money has been deposited. And abiut the story of demonetisation – the balloon will be punctured when it will become known.
Now, the whole banking system, as our Chairman of the Standing Committee, Veerappa Moily says, is facing a collapse. The Government is trying to clutch at straws, and one straw is this Ordinance.
Now, I want to ask various questions. Currently, under Section 35A, the Reserve Bank may issue directions to banks on grounds of public interest and in the interest of banking policy. This ordinance gives the RBI additional power to direct banks to initiate recovery proceedings. So when already the RBI has the power to issue directions, why do you need the Ordinance?
The second question is, the majority of NPAs, 88 per cent of the NPAs, are in public sector banks. Mind you, the private sector banks like HDFC, ICICI, do not have such large NPAs. So the Government could have itself issued directions instead of asking the useless RBI to issue directions, since the Government owns all these.
My next question. As a banking regulator, the RBI is supposed to look after the macro-economic picture. It, as a regulator, is responsible for maintaining the financial stability while banks have the flexibility to make business decisions. Say, you have to settle a loan, and so, you have to take a haircut. Now the banks will not take the decision. They will say that let the RBI tell you then you have to take a haircut and settle the matter; so the whole thing will be delayed.
The appropriateness of the RBI directing Banks on the issue of default, which is a business decision, needs to be examined. Why not leave the banks to their own things?
Currently, banks face certain challenges as part of the recovery proceedings, such as the lack of incentives among public sector bankers to recognise losses, the fear of investigation in the case of low recoveries, insufficient capital to absorb the losses.
Everybody has mentioned that banks do not have the capital according to banking norms.
I have already said that I have given a statutory resolution, have opposed the introduction of the Bill and have called this an unnecessary Bill. With that I would rather say that I would expect the Bill, but if you accept Supriya Sule’s Amendment. She has said that this decision about going for insolvency and bankruptcy procedures should be left to the banks themselves. Please accept that, and then I will support the Bill.
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Madam Speaker, when the name of Japan comes, there is a common feeling that Bullet Train is coming. But the question which I want to ask the hon. Minister is different. The railway project which they are trying to implement is Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Railway Project. But I would like to know from the Minister as to whether the infrastructure for running such
But I would like to know from the Minister as to whether the infrastructure for running such high-speed trains can be made available in a country like India where we are not able to run Rajdhani and Duronto trains on time. These trains also run late and they are not able to match up with their estimated speed. So, I want to know as to how far they are going 02.08.2017 jr-sh Uncorrected / Not for Publication 18 to be technically well equipped and how serious they are to cope up with the infrastructural set up to run such
So, I want to know as to how far they are going 02.08.2017 jr-sh Uncorrected / Not for Publication 18 to be technically well equipped and how serious they are to cope up with the infrastructural set up to run such high-speed trains approximately at 350 km. per hour.
Then, I would also like to know as to how far they are going to take safety and security issues into consideration while running these high-speed trains.
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Madam, modern warfare is not going to be fought with bullet or bombs; it is going to be cyber attack. And I am sure that the Minister and the House is aware that the world has no clue about the prevention, Because the attack can come from anywhere and we have seen it. In his answer, the Minister also has mentioned it.
Internal security is looked after by the Ministry of Home Affairs, external security is looked after by Defense Ministry. Cyber attack is both internal and external security threat and it is a very specialised area.
Would the Government consider having a separate Ministry altogether which could be known as Ministry for Cyber Security, because in coming days this is going to be as dangerous as nuclear warfare.
Thank you, Madam.
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Sir, I want to make a Point of Order under Rule 29 and Rule 33.
We are aware that the Business Advisory Committee can only allot time and nothing more than that, which is fair enough. But it was informally agreed at the Business Advisory Committee that there would a Short Duration Discussion on the ill-effects rollout of GST and demonetisation. It has not still being listed this week.
Can the Minister give us the assurance on the floor of this House that this Short Duration Discussion will be taken up next week? This is an important issue, so we just want to know. There are lot of things happened post GST rollout.
