TEXT:
1243 hrs.
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±Éc÷Eòä ¨É®ú VÉɪÉäÆMÉä*Today the Minister is here. I will request the hon. Minister to intervene and see that the students are saved. (Interruptions)
MR. SPEAKER: This matter was raised by you yesterday.
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.. ±Éc÷Eòä ¨É®úxÉä Eòä EòMÉÉ®ú {É®ú ½þèÆ*MR. SPEAKER: You have raised this matter yesterday.
SHRI RAM VILAS PASWAN : So, let the hon. Minister reply to it now.
MR. SPEAKER: I now call the Minister of Finance to reply to the discussion on the Bill.
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MR. SPEAKER: You raised this matter yesterday and the Government has also taken note of it.
MR. SPEAKER: Is this the way to raise matters in this House?
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MR. SPEAKER: Shri Paswan, you have made a mention about this yesterday and you made a mention about it two or three days ago also.
SHRI RAM VILAS PASWAN : The Minister was not present yesterday.
MR. SPEAKER: Shri Fatmi, you are a senior Member of this House. This is not the way to raise matters. Please take your seat.
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MR. SPEAKER: Nothing will go on record.
(Interruptions) *
MR. SPEAKER: I have already called the Minister of Finance.
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MR. SPEAKER: Nothing will go on record.
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MR. SPEAKER: Hon. Members, please take your seats.
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MR. SPEAKER: Shri Fatmi, is this the way to raise a matter in this House? Please take your seat. You are a senior Member.
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PROF. P.J. KURIEN (MAVELIKARA): Mr. Speaker, Sir, please allow Shri Chavan to speak on this Bill. (Interruptions)
SHRI PRITHVIRAJ D. CHAVAN (KARAD): Sir, I will take only five minutes.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE (SHRI YASHWANT SINHA): I hope, you are going to speak on this Bill.
SHRI PRITHVIRAJ D. CHAVAN (KARAD): Yes.
MR. SPEAKER: I will give you only one minute.
SHRI PRITHVIRAJ D. CHAVAN : Sir, I will require five minutes but not more than that. I want to make a few points because it is a very important Bill.
MR. SPEAKER: All right, I will allow you.
* Not Recorded
I would like the hon. Minister to investigate why the two printing presses, one at Salboni and other at Mysore,which were bought to enhance the capacity are not functioning properly. Is there a conspiracy? Our presses are not working and the Government is importing currency notes. Rs. 350 crore worth of import took place. Please assure us that these thousand rupee notes will not be printed outside. There are very grave implications to this.
Another issue I would like to touch is that the whole apparatus of currency printing notes and paper printing notes needs to be overhauled. They cannot function like the ordnance factories. Please convert all these currency printing and paper mills into companies and corporatise them so that they can work efficiently and the country is not held to a ransom. I would request the hon. Minister to study the counterfeit aspect very seriously. There are reports that the counterfeiters have got excellent technology. There are reports that some of our neighbouring countries are using it as an unconventional economic warfare against this country. I would not like to name those countries. The terrorist activities are being funded by the counterfeit notes. Our currency notes are being printed in eight different countries. What is the guarantee that more notes are not being printed? What is the guarantee that the security papers which are being supplied by you perhaps, are not produced in larger quantity? What is the guarantee that it is not being misused? What is the security during transportation? It is a very serious matter. Currency notes worth one lakh crores of rupees were printed abroad by eight different countries and that too by the private companies. Let us not repeat this. Please give an assurance to us that you do not intend to print 5,000 and 10,000 rupee notes as this Bill does not prevent the Government from doing that. Please clarify the position of the Government.
Now, you have specifically come to the House to get perrmission to print 1,000 rupee notes. Perhaps, there is a logic to it. But you assure us that you will not get these 1,000 rupee notes printed outside, we will find it difficult to support the Bill.
I understand that the design for thousand rupee notes has already been done. I do not know whether it is true or not. When you design it, for the photographs to be put on the currency notes, please consider the photographs of great leaders of the past. I would request you to put the photograph of Chatrapati Shivaji on the thousand rupee notes. When you introduce some other currency notes later on, you can consider other great national leaders of the past. Please assure us that you will restructure the whole currency printing mechanism. This situation of going abroad to get our currency notes printed should not arise again. Please investigate why these two printing presses imported at great cost are not functioning properly.
1300 hrs
The suggestion that thousand rupee notes should be printed was first mooted by the Reserve Bank of India for some very good reasons in April, 1994. The suggestion came from the RBI. The then Government of the Congress Party took a decision in principle in July, 1994 that thousand rupee notes should be printed. Most of us who have been in Government are aware of the very complicated and dilatory mechanism by which the Governments work, especially the Government of India. The final decision could not be taken on this during the regime of the Congress Party. The proposal was revived or continue to be considered when the United Front Government came to power and that Government decided to go ahead with the printing of these thousand rupee notes. A decision was taken at the level of the Cabinet. Then political events intervened and they could not bring the Bill beforre this House. When our Government came into power the proposal was put up to us and we looked at the justification and background recognized by the two previous Governments. Then we also decided to go ahead with this and it is in that background that this matter has been brought before this House in the form of a legislation.
So, if consensus is an important consideration, I would dare say, Mr.Speaker, Sir, with all humility, that there has been a consensus across the board spanning three Governments including ours which have been in power for the last three years. Unfortunately, in this country there has been a shortage of both notes and coins. This is not a recent origin. For almost two decades this country has been facing the shortage of notes and coins. From time to time steps have been taken to get over the shortage. Fresh capacities have been created in the form of new mints and new presses to get over this problem. Despite the efforts which have been made, unfortunately, the availability in terms of the supply and demand position has been going down and I have figures to suggest that it has come down from a high of 55 per cent of availability to something like 38 per cent of availability in 1997-98. Shri Prithviraj D. Chavan has left the House immediately after raising his point. Therefore, it was in that background that the United Front Government, when it was in Office, decided to import both currency notes as well as coins from abroad. It was a decision taken by them. I am not reflecting on the merit of the decision, But I would like to say that the present Government has had no hand in that decision.
We have not taken any decision so far, despite the shortage that we are facing, to import these currency notes. I can assure, with all the emphasis at my command, that as far as thousand rupee notes are concerned, it is not the intention of the Government to get them printed outside this country. They will be printed within this country so that no problem arises.
An issue has been raised here by various speakers in regard to the shortage of small denomination notes.
DR. ASIM BALA (NABADWIP): May I know whether the five thousand rupees notes will be printed outside or within our country?
SHRI YASHWANT SINHA: I will come to that. If you just have the patience to listen to me, I will try and satisfy the curiosity of all Members.
The decision not to print the notes of one, two and five rupees was taken many years ago. The decision not to print one rupee notes was taken in September, 1994. The decision not to print two rupees notes was taken in January, 1995 and the decision not to print five rupees notes was taken in November, 1995, by the then Governments, maybe for good reasons.
PROF. P.J. KURIEN : That is why we are here. Do you want to be here?
SHRI YASHWANT SINHA: The problem, Sir, is, that all the wisdom dawns on Members and Parties when they go to that side.
PROF. P.J. KURIEN : That is your experience.
SHRI YASHWANT SINHA: And, I have known of Parties changing their positions and stands when they are in power but I know a very few cases where Parties have changed their stands on decisions taken when they were in power.
This was done, as I said, for obviously good reason that the currency notes used to get soiled and, therefore, it was decided that they should be replaced with coins. That is the status at the moment. The reason why soiled one, two or five rupees notes are still in circulation is the fact that they have not been printed and they will not be printed in future. As I said, they have not been printed for many years. The arrangement of the Reserve Bank of India is that anyone who is in possession of these small notes can go to any of the currency chests of the Reserve Bank of India and get them replaced for coins of these values. That is the suggestion that I would like to make. Anyone, who is in possession of such notes, should go to the nearest currency chests and get them exchanged. There is no point in trying to keep in circulation notes which are soiled, damaged and which are not going to be printed in future. If there was a proposal to print them, then I would have said that they will be replaced. But they will not be replaced. The replacement will be on the basis of the coins.