83. I shall now turn to the revenue receipts.

84. Hon’ble Members are aware that on the basis of a consensus reached in the Third Meeting of the Inter-State Council held on July 17, 1997, the then government had approved in principle to accept the recommendations of the Tenth Finance Commission regarding the alternative scheme of sharing of Centre’s tax revenues with the States. I am happy to announce that we have ratified this decision. Accordingly, I propose to shortly introduce a Constitution Amendment Bill to give effect to this alternative scheme subject only to one modification. The modification is that the percentage share of States’ share in the gross proceeds of Central taxes may be reviewed by successive Finance Commissions instead of freezing it for fifteen years as suggested by the Tenth Finance Commission.

85. Gross tax revenues at the existing rates of taxation are estimated at Rs.1,48,506 crore. As Hon’ble Members are aware, we had made a provision of Rs.7,594 crore in the RE 1997-98 for States’ share in the proceeds of the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme, 1997 as the collections were estimated to be Rs.10,050 crore by March 31, 1998. However, the actual collection is reported to be about Rs.1,000 crore less. After making adjustment for the excess share paid to the States, I am providing Rs.39,074 crore as the share of taxes of the States. Thus, the Centre’s net tax revenue will be Rs.1,09,432 crore over RE 1997-98 of Rs.99,158 crore. Non-tax revenues are estimated to increase from Rs.39,356 crore in RE 1997-98 to Rs.45,137 crore this year. I have taken credit for Rs.2,800 crore as license fee from the operators of cellular and basic telecom services and Rs.4,200 crore as net surplus profits of the Reserve Bank of India.

86. The net revenue receipts for the Centre, including non-tax receipts, are expected to increase from Rs.1,38,514 crore in RE 1997-98 to Rs.1,54,569 crore in 1998-99.

87. In the area of capital receipts, market borrowings are placed at Rs.55,931 crore. Net external assistance is estimated at Rs.2,337 crore. I am also taking credit for receipts from disinvestment of equity in public sector enterprises of Rs.5,000 crore.

88. I shall come to the fiscal deficit in Part B of my speech.