52 SOCIAL SCIENTIST impact would be felt by the final consumers through an upward push of costs of construction and production. The same process is repeated this year when the pre^budget mobilisation has amounted to about Rs. 2100 crores. An additional amount of Rs 560 crores is sought to be raised by the railways and P and T by an upward revision of passenger fares, freight rates, postal tariffs and telephone charges. The total amount involved is about Rs 2660 crores. Texation proper has thus become relatively less important as an instrument of resource mobilisation at the Centre. One would expect that such a stupendous increase in administered prices would result in a corresponding increase in the profits from public undertakings. This is not the case. In fact, an increase in the administered prices amounting to Rs 1300 crores in 1982-83 has increased the profits from public undertakings only by about Rs 300 crores. This is like producing a mole out of a mountain. What the government has actually done is to cover up the diseconomies associated with excess capacities and inefficiencies in the operation of public sector undertakings by unwarranted increases in the administered prices. Exclusive Reliance on Indirect Taxation The Jha Committee maintained that 80 per cent of tax resources is attributable to indirect taxation. The proportion must have increased since then because of cut-backs in direct taxes and an almost exclusive reliance on indirect taxation. This is particularly true of the last two years. In 1981-82, out of the additional taxes of Rs 1400 crores actually raised. Rs 1030 crores were accounted for by customs duties and excise levies. In the 1982-83 budget, the entire tax of Rs 590 crores was proposed to be raised almost exclusively from indirect taxes. There has been a shortfall in excise collection especially because customs and excise amounting to about Rs 2000 crores could not be collected because cases have been pending before the courts on account of ambiguities in tax laws. On top of it, the present budget has proposed Rs 716 crores of additional taxation exclusively through customs and excise. It is often argued that the bulk of indirect taxes fallen inessential commodities. The Jha Committee felt otherwise. According to the Committee, in 1973-74, 55 per cent of total indirect tax revenue came from households with a monthly per capita expenditure ofRs 100 or less. It also underlined that le^st suspected articles like tyres and tubes impinge upon poor consumers. There is no reason to believe that the picture has changed since then. On the contrary, rising costs of consumption tend to push more people below the poverty line every year. In the present budget, removal or reduction of excise duties on pressure cookers, energy saving gas stoves, synthetic fabrics, sugar etc are held out as a boon to the housewives. The total amount