ISLAMABAD, June 7: Former Indian finance minister Yashwant Sinha informed Pakistani parliamentarians on Wednesday that every detail of defence budget was presented before parliament in India and each and every spending was thoroughly scrutinised by the members.

Mr Sinha, who had presented five budgets during the Bharatya Janta Party (BJP) government in India, was speaking at a “Short Course for Parliamentarians on Budget Process and Analysis” organised by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT).

Responding to the questions of Pakistani parliamentarians, Mr Sinha said that defence budget went through a detailed parliamentary scrutiny in India and a breakup of each and every expenditure of army, navy, air force and other institutions under the ministry of defence was presented before the members. “Nothing is kept hidden from parliament and no preferential treatment is given to the defence ministry,” he added.

In response to a question, Mr Sinha said that pension to the retired Indian military personnel was drawn from the defence budget and it had nothing to do with the civilian’s kitty.

Replying to another question, he said, it was impossible for the president in India not to address the joint sitting of parliament, as it was a constitutional requirement.

Mr Sinha said that the Indian parliament discussed the budget for 75 days and its ministries-related standing committees examined the demands for grants for three weeks before Lok Sabha (lower house) passed the budget.

He said the Indian parliament received supplementary budgets three times a year. In addition, he said, the finance minister also presented an implementation statement about the previous year’s budget while presenting the next year’s budget.

Mr Sinha, who had also served his country as minister for external affairs, said that the Indian constitution of 1950 had many clauses related to the procedures of finance-related matters. He said in democratic countries, governments could not spend even a single penny without approval of parliament. He said parliament’s authority and right to oversight expenditures should be strengthened.

Mr Sinha said that in many western countries, a draft of the budgetary proposals was prepared and put before the nation for a debate. He said after a thorough debate, the governments announced final budgets. Contrary to that, he said, in India and Pakistan, the budget was considered to be a secret document and it was not disclosed to the nation before its announcement in parliament.

The visiting BJP leader said that the finance minister in India consulted people from all interest groups, including traders, agriculturists, tax practitioners, industrialists and even journalists, before starting the budget-making process.

Mr Sinha said that they had also introduced “Gender Budget” in India and each ministry was required to present the figures that how much it had spent on women. He said the railway budget was presented separately in India before the national budget. He said the budget was also passed by the upper house, but it had very limited jurisdiction in financial matters.

Mr Sinha also explained the system of National Finance Commission in India and said that NFC awards were never challenged by parliament though it had the final authority to approve it. He said so far they had gone through 12 such commissions in India.

Replying to a question, Mr Sinha said that collection of sales tax was responsibility of states and provinces in India. Similarly, he said, electric supply was also responsibility of the provinces. He said in many states and provinces, including Punjab and Andhra Pradesh, electricity to the farmers was supplied free of cost.

The former Indian minister also said that they had institutionalised the issue of pay scales revision through pay commission and it had not been left to the discretion of government.

Earlier, Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub Khan endorsed the participants’ demand to involve parliamentary standing committees in the pre-budget and post-budget phases.

He said parliament was sovereign and it could change the rules of procedure to involve the committees in the budget process. He called for a greater dialogue to debate various points of view on national economy and the budget.

Economist Kaiser Bengali presented an historical analysis of the key features of budget since 1973. He pointed out that the poor segments of society bore a relatively larger burden of taxes while the rich contributed less. He also said that Sindh was bearing the maximum burden of taxes while NWFP was bearing the minimum burden.

Parliamentarians, both from the treasury and opposition, were unanimous in demanding greater and more meaningful role of parliament and standing committees in the pre-budget and post- budget phases. It was pointed out that the budget session in Pakistan generally lasted for a week or so and the National Assembly was set to debate this year’s budget for just five days.

Prominent among those who attended the course were Syed Naveed Qamar, Sherry Rehman, Fauzia Wahab and Fehmida Mirza of PPP, MP Bhandara, Noor Jahan Panezai, Nisar Memon and Asiya Azeem of PML, Hanif Abbasi, Shah Abdul Aziz, Inayat Begum, Jamila Ahmed and Khalid Soomro of MMA and Nawab Mirza, Iqbal Mohammad Ali Khan, Shabina Talat, Abdul Qadir Khanzada and Dev Das of MQM.

Later, Mr Sinha distributed certificates among the course participants.