How transparent government is?

WB government claims that it keeps everything transparent and it has made a government of difference. After Singur and Nandigram the image of WB government has become fade. Still a descent section, especially outside WB believe that CPM led WB government is not that bad. For them we like to point out two incidences:

1. In this blog, we discussed how WB government gave false statement that most of the farmers of Singur gave their consent for the land acquisition. In that report, we referred to the status report on Singur, made by WB government. That report was available at www.wbgov.com. We were just checking that site recently for other reports----to find more lies from government on other fields. Interestingly we didn’t even find that status report on Singur. They have removed that report. Don’t you think it is really shady? We are all aware that so many people’s organization also challenged that report. Under that circumstances what could be the reason to remove that status report from the website?

However, we had a saved copy of this report. We would like to keep it available to the people. If you like you can download from here.

Interestingly, recently one report was published in the Bartaman (April 9, 2007), a Bengali daily quoting from a report of the standing committee of WB legislative assembly on commerce and industry. It said that in Haldia petrochem only 670 found their employment. Indirectly it gave job to 1200 contractual labours (since 1990, government has been claiming that this project is to provide 1.5 lakhs of jobs). We tried to verify it from the original report. Unfortunately we didn’t able to find the report at www.wbgov.com. We would like to know what is the beauty of having maintained this official website of WB government if we cannot get all these reports?

Doesn’t it show that the government is really eager to hide information from the people?

Is it transparency?
Do you call it as democracy?

“WB government gives the best possible rate in land acquisition”: The truth behind the myth

There is propaganda that WB government acquires land with a reasonable rate. This becomes the logic to defend the ongoing land acquisition programme in WB. In reality, WB government or other government agencies acquire land and then hand over to different companies. Sometimes they give subsidies, for instance to TATA in Singur and sometimes make huge profit. In Haldia, near Nandigram, East Medinipur, Haldia Development Authority (HDA) acquired land (and it gave the circular for the land acquisition in Nandigram as well). They started land acquisition to ‘develop’ Haldia. Here we will see how HDA made huge profit from the land of poor peasantry.

Couple of days before, Buddha came Haldia to lay the foundation stone of a bio diesel factory of Imamy group. HDA gave 30 acres of land to Imamy with a rate of Rs 7 lakh/acre whereas when it acquired the land from farmers, it spent Rs 75 thousand to 1 lakh/acre. In the same way, HDA gave 25 acres and 3.5 acres to S T V Technologies at Bargashipur for IT park and housing complex respectively. In its 87th board meeting, HDA decided the rate Rs 14 lakh/acre for 25 acres land. The rate for 3.5 acres was Rs 20 lakh/acre. Interestingly when HDA acquired the same land it paid only Rs 1.15 lakh/acre at the most. Similarly, it gave 50 acres of land in Chakdwip and 10 acres more in three other places to R D B Industries for a proposed track terminal. For this land HAD asked the rate of 15 lakh/acre (and additional Rs 1000/acre as annual rent). This land was also acquired with a rate of Rs 1.15 lakh/acre from the farmers.

This is how WB government serves the interest of poor peasants.

On the other hand, in Singur, it continues to subsidize TATA. It decided to spend Rs 18 lakh for the dredging of Julkia canal and overall improvement of the drainage system near the proposed TATA factory in Singur. Interestingly, we have been listening from Buddha and other CPM leaders that TATA will spend money for the infrastructure development in Singur. In reality government is doing that in favour of TATA with our money. Interestingly, people of Singur demanded the dredging so many times in past years; it was turned down because of insufficient funding.

We would like to ask, from where this fund comes now?
Doesn’t it show that the sole job of the government is to lick the boots of big companies?

(Based on two reports in the Bartaman, dated April 24, 2007)

Singur land lease agreement

West Bengal government signed the land agreement with TATA for the proposed Singur plant. It’s a good deal for TATA, no doubt.

Government gives the land to TATA with a lease for 90 years.

The bonanza could be summarized as follows:

We must appreciate the potential of West Bengal government for discovering tricks to make us fool. Apparently, TATA will pay more than Rs 800 crore. But, look at the payments it needs to pay in the first 30 years. Only Rs 56.25 crore. In the next 30 years it will pay Rs ~200 crore. But, if we consider the rate of inflation (currently more than 6%) then this figure will not be that big. The same is true for its payment for last 30 years.

Essentially, TATA doesn’t need to pay anything right now for the land. Although West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) has borrowed Rs 150 crore with 10% annual interest to acquire this land. WBIDC has to pay Rs 15 crore per year as interest; for 90 years it has to pay Rs 1350 crore for interest only, whereas for 90 years TATA will pay only Rs 800 core.

It means West Bengal government signed an agreement to subsidize TATA for Rs 700 crore over the period of 90 years. Again consider the figures. For the next 90 years, TATA will pay Rs 800 crores and enjoy Rs 700 crore as subsidy. In reality the actual subsidy is far bigger than what is being reflected in those figures. WBIDC has already borrowed Rs 150 crore. Considering the rate of inflation, after 90 years, this amount will be really huge. And it has to pay Rs 15 crore each year as interest. On the other hand right now TATA needs to pay only Rs 1 crore in a year. And it will pay its most of the payment at its last 30 year period of lease.

Who will actually pay the subsidy?
Buddha?
CPM?
Or other running dogs of imperialism-comprador capitalism?

No. This subsidy will be paid from our hard earn money. With our hard earn money these running dogs of imperialism and comprador capitalists subsidize crores to Multinational and big companies while letting our people dieing of starvation.

This is what they call as DEVELOPMENT.
We call as LOOT.

Don’t you think it is our duty to make an end of it?

(The detail of the lease agreement is taken from the bartamanpatrika.com, March 11, 2007)

Update

Nirupam Sen, the commerce minister of West Bengal government confirmed the above mentioned lease agreement in assembly on March 15, 2007 (source: ganashakti, March 16,2007). He pointed out that TATA will enjoy other facilities like Tax holidays for Singur plant.

Automotive Mission Plan in nutshell

Ministries of heavy industries and public enterprise of the government of India has released a policy named “Automotive Mission Plan” (AMP) 2006-16.

Let us quote some "recommended interventions” from the plan:

“Investment Support
In order to spur further growth, the Industry has requested that the automotive industry may be brought under the purview of existing incentive structure (which exist for other sectors of the economy or which are available in some of the competing countries). Some of the specific policies, that Industry has requested for consideration includes:

Tax holiday for Automotive Industry for investment exceeding Rs.500 crore (as given to power projects, firms engaged in exports, EOUs, infrastructure projects, etc.)
• One-stop clearance for FDI proposals in automotive sector including the local clearances required for setting up manufacturing facilities.
• Tax deductions of 100 per cent of export profits.
• Deduction of 30 per cent of net (total) income for 10 years for new industrial undertakings.
• Concession of Import duty on machinery for setting up of new plant or capacity expansion
• Deduction of 50 per cent on foreign exchange earnings by automotive companies (like Construction companies, hotels, etc.)

• State Government to be urged to offer the following:

Preferential allotment of land to automotive plants as is given to IT sector by different State governments
Ensuring Continuous uninterrupted power supply as is done by many states to some sectors
Captive Generation in the sector could be promoted, for instance, by exemption of Electricity Duty for five years as is done for biotech industry in some states.”

“On the issue of Labour Law Reforms Industry has submitted that :
(i) Labour laws adversely impact competitiveness despite being a low labour cost economy.
(ii) There are 45 Central Acts and 16 associated rules that deal directly with labour. There are others Acts that indirectly deal with labour, like the Boilers Act (1923), the Collection of Statistics Act (1953), the Dangerous Machines (Regulations) Act (1983) and Emigration Act (1983). There are total 154 labour laws.
(iii) Some of the recommendations made by the Industry are as follows:

(a) Factories Act, 1948: The State Government using its powers under Section 65(2) of the Factories Act may grant exemption to all EOUs/ SEZs from all provisions of Section 51, 52, 54 and 56 of the Act. Thus, the working hours should be increased from 48 to 60 per week (Section 51), from 9 to 11 per day (Section 54) and spread over from 10.5 to 13.0 hours per day (Section 56). Such exemptions will be a progressive step in enhancing the competitiveness of the industry.

(b) The Contract Labour (Regulation and abolition) Act, 1970: Fixed term contractual employment may be permitted in relation to the business needs. Contract labour will be allowed in core areas for temporary periods to meet the market demand. Fixed term employment of contracts could eventually be allowed in core activities.

(c) The provision 9-A in the Industrial Disputes Act requires a stringent process for Item number 10 and 11. Some flexibility will be required to recruit workforce as per the demand fluctuation in the market.

(d) The Second National Labour Commission recommendation that prior permission should not be required in respect of lay-off and retrenchment in an establishment of any employment size would be examined for its implementation in auto sector. The prior permission required in case of a unit employing more than 100 employees for closure of the establishment may be examined to raise it to 300.”

This plan is the road map from the government of India for development of the automobile industry.
So, what does this road map essentially mean?

Huge tax deductions, ‘preferential land allocations’ and other facilities such as
Exemption of electricity duty for five years.

Obviously this is to satisfy the thirst of multinational companies and comprador capitalists who are dieing to secure maximum profit.

And what would be for us who will work there?

Labours will work 11 hours a day.
Labours will be recruited on contractual basis as much as possible.

But, this is not enough.

Finally, the companies will have the authority to lay-off and retrenchment of any employment size whenever they wish.


Does the government have any role other than securing the plunder and exploitation at the highest level?

What do you think?

Auto Mission Plan seeks tax holidays to attract mega investments

One more policy for plunder has been announced by the government of India. This time, Automotive Mission Plan. It has proposed huge tax deduction for the investments in automobile sector. Who will pay for the subsidy to these imperialists and comprador capitalists? No wonder, people of India, those who are starving, who don't have anywhere to go when they are sick, who cannot afford to send their kids to school. But, great India government don’t feel ashamed to subsidize big companies with our hard earn money, because it will result “Development”.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will release the final copy of the Auto Mission Plan 2006-2016 (AMP) on January 29, which envisages an investment of $35-40 billion in the auto industry over the next 10 years.

The Plan prepared by the ministry of heavy industries seeks a host of incentives for the industry to make India a hub for automobiles. The plan asks for tax holidays for automobile sector investments of more than Rs 500 crore. It also proposes tax deductions of 100% on export profits and deduction of 30% of net income for 10 years for new industrial undertakings.

One of the key recommendations of the plan is to introduce goods and services tax (GST) for the auto sector by 2009, when the entire country is expected to roll over into the GST regime. With the introduction of GST, the sector is expected to benefit as it will entail a possible removal of other taxes such as octroi.

On the infrastructure front, the plan proposes upgradation of port capacity to provide greater berthing facilities not only for cars and other four-wheelers but also two-wheelers. The AMP also proposes the development of Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata as auto hubs.

The AMP also promotes the idea of captive generation plants to meet the growing power needs of the sector, which are expected to triple over the next 10 years from 1,990 mw to 6760 mw in 2015. The minister for heavy industries Santosh Mohan Dev and secretary RC Panda will represent the ministry at the event organised by SIAM and ACMA.

Link