CPM opposed to increasing tax-burden upon honest tax-payers

Kurukshetra, Jan 22 (UNI) CPI (M) polit bureau member Sitaram Yechuri called on the Centre to widen the tax net instead of increasing the burden on the honest tax-payers.

''More people earning taxable income should be brought under the tax net and new tax areas should be identified to increase revenue rather than increasing the tax proportions, as the latter could provoke tax evasion in some cases,'' the senior left leader, here to deliver the convocation address to NIT graduates, told UNI last evening.

''Another necessity is to increase the public investment in productive units so that more revenue is generated, which should then percolate down to the grassroot levels to provide them with better facilities,'' he said.

But at present the priority for the UPA government must be to control the price hike of the essential commodities as well as of the petroleum products, specially diesel, he stressed.

Mr Yechuri also said the Union Government should also ban the forward trading system in essential commodities to discourage hoarding and black-marketing of foodgrains by unscrupulous traders.

Refering to the Centre's claim that the GDP growth rate was 9.2 per cent, Mr Yechury said that is in reality, there was only 1.6 per cent growth in agricultural sector on which two-third people of the country are dependent.

''So its suffering India, not Shining India. The gap between the shining and suffering India was widening due to the government policies which should not allow FDI in insurance and retailing sectors, he said.

He also advocated amendments in laws and bylaws and passage of Pension reform bill and full implementation of the 6th Pay Commission to mitigate the increasing sufferings of the people.

Mr Yechuri also demanded amendment in laws relating to the SEZ so that the farming and labour community was not put at disadvantage.

He stressed that the government needed to amend the laws relating to the quality of land to be acquired for the SEZ , besides paying 'adequate compensation' not only to the farming community but also to the tenants of the agricultural land. The land use must give priority to the industry and basic infrastructure rather than to the real estate.

''We are not against SEZs but we want that they must favour the agriculturist classes rather than the real estate people, moreover it must give returns to the government as well,'' he elaborated.

Defending the Left government in West Bengal on the issue of SEZs, Mr Yechuri claimed that it was pro-labour government and no disadvantage has occurred to this class there.

''But due to the inconsistencies in the laws and bylaws in the SEZs, the property giants in other parts of the country were playing foul by converting the metro peripheral land into only residential estates and not the industrial or manufacturing units, as is the case of Maha-Mumbai and Delhi NCR.

He said that the Centre must specify non-cultivable lands for SEZ, followed by single-crop land for which the landowner farmers and also the tenants, must be adequately compensated on the West Bengal pattern. He said only 25 per cent land in the SEZs should be allotted for the real estate purposes and the FDI into the real estate sector must be reconsidered. He also opposed tax holidays being offered to a large number of the favourite industrialists.

The Left leader also assailed the government decision to disallow China to undertake the work of deep sea water project in the name of 'security'. He said the yardstick must be the same for every country and every field. The ban must be associated with justifiable logic and not prejudices and biases as far as international cooperation was concerned,'' he contended.

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