The Hindu Business Line : Implementation of schemes — House panel pulls up Commerce Ministry

A STANDING Parliamentary Committee on Commerce has pulled up the Commerce Ministry by detecting a distinct "mismatch" in the vigour with which funds are sought by the Ministry and the zeal with which the schemes are implemented by it.

In its report on the demands for grants of the Commerce Ministry, tabled in Parliament by its Chairman, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, the House panel said that against an allocation of Rs 885 crore in 2003-04 Budget, actual expenditure was Rs 687 crore and the revised estimate was Rs 750 crore. Major shortfall with regard to revised estimates had been noticed in the allocations made for schemes of market access initiative, modernisation and upgradation of Tea Board.

Directing the Commerce Department to adopt a pragmatic approach, the Committee contends that in order to evaluate progress in the implementation of the projects under Assistance to States for Developing Export Infrastructure and other Allied Activities (ASIDE) scheme and assess its impact on export, the projects sanctioned under the scheme should be visited regularly by the officials of the Commerce department.

The Committee asked the Government to finalise the report of the Inter-Ministerial Committee and expedite its decision on the new foodgrain export policy, ensuring that export of foodgrains does not lead to food scarcity.

It urged the department to persuade the State Governments to facilitate the process of land acquisition and not to cause any delay in notifying the fiscal package so that the setting up of the special economic zones (SEZs) and their operationalisation does not get delayed. Alongside, it called for all-out efforts to catalyse development of infrastructure and flow of credit to the units in the agri export zones.

Taking exception to the under-utilisation of allocation of the order of Rs 26.10 crore by the Coffee Board, the Committee said naturally programmes such as market development and support to small grower sector would suffer. It also expressed dismay over the delay in approving the Rubber Plantation Development Scheme and recommended that the Government should formulate the scheme expeditiously for the remainder of the Tenth Plan so that replantation of old and uneconomic rubber plants could be undertaken with a view to help rubber growers most of whom have small holdings. It asked the department to ensure that the allocation of Rs 40 crore meant for the small tea growers actually reaches them, besides taking efforts to strengthen the R&D base for improving the quality of tea produced in the country.

It noted that the lack of performance data of rubberised roads is of the major constraints for assessing the comparative advantages of the extensive use of natural rubber modified bitumen (NRBM) on roads by public works departments and other departments. It urged the department to have a serious interface with the institutions such as Central Road Research Institute to develop proper and cost-effective technologies. It said the Government should approve some allocation for providing incentives to local bodies for promoting rubberisation of roads.

As commercial intelligence has assumed a great importance calling for a lot of expertise and field work, it urged the Government to accord due importance to the collection of commercial intelligence and revamp the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence & Statistics (DGCI&S), Kolkata, for the purpose of providing suitable allocations for carrying its activities in the field of commercial intelligence.