40 YEARS AGO

Export Of Profits Doubles In Nine Years

THE increasing penetration of foreign private capital in Indian economy is resulting in high exports of profit out of the country. The minister of state for finance B R Bhagat recently admitted in the Lok Sabha that remittances of current profits and dividends had nealy doubled since 1956-57. He placed a statement on the table of the House showing the following remittances made from year to year as a result of various collaboration agreements during the last nine years:

These are official igures and do not disclose the export of profits in a clandestine manner which has been a regular feature. They do not include the amounts taken out of country in the name of royalty, payment for technical know-how and services, etc. Moreover, this table does not show the export of profits of companies solely owned by foreigners.

Apart from this, crores of rupees worth of profits are reinvested in the country every year. In the later period, as seen from the table, the export of current profits shows a declining trend because government offered more “incentive” for foreign investments in India.

The Reserve Bank is now conducting a survey of foreign collaboration in Indian industry. But Indian citizens will have no right to ask for information about export of profit by any individual company. Bhagat told the Lok Sabha that since the Reserve Bank obtained data from the companies covered by the survey on a “strictly confidencial basis, it would not be possible to dovulge any company-wise information even after completion of the survey."

Irregularities Galore In Bihar Government Accounts

The report of the Public Accounts Committee for 1960-61 and the audit report or 1962 which were presented to the Bihar assembly recently reveal serious irregularities and heavy losses to public funds.

The committee has expressed grave concern over the non-settlement of numerous provident fund and pension cases, some of them pending for the last 19 years.

The Bihar government had purchased huge quantities of costly equipment and medicines shortly after the last war from the American Disposal Organisation in 1947. No account of this was available though a medical officer had been placed in charge of the stock for 12 years!

The accounts of the government grain supply scheme had revealed a loss of Rs 7.61 crore but only a loss of 158,000 maunds of foodgrains valued at about Rs 20 lakh had been shown as "transit shortage".

The report further indicates that the government had invested Rs 2.32 crore in joint stock companies from which it was getting no dividends!

Power Dues From Nizam Termed "Bad Debt"

The Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board has classified Rs seven lakh due from the Nizam of Hyderabad under "bad debts". It is obvious that such a step was taken for writing off the amount.

The Nizam gets an annual privy purse of Rs fifty lakh from the Union government and has invested crores of rupees in various concerns.

Who Benefits From Patent System

According to a UN report, 89.38 per cent of the patents in India are held by foreigners. These patents are enabling the foreigners to establish monopoly conditions in some important industries.

While pointing out the disadvantages of the patent system the Indian pharmaceutical industry has noted the following:

1. Patents in India are mostly held by foreigners and this is understood to mean that industry suffers by foreign domination;

2. The Indian industry has not done any worthwhile research as a result of readily available patents;

3. Drug prices are very high and patents held by foreigners are responsible for this;

4. Indigenous raw materials are not being made use of as much as is possible.

About 15 per cent of the patents in India are in pharmaceutical industry but the impact of the patents system is the same in other industries also.

US Monopolies Thrive On War And Space Business

The war and space business of the big three corporations, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors, is a million-dollar operation per year. Their annual reports show that they sold 968 million dollars worth of military and space hardware and scientific know-how in 1965.

It is a competitive field in which the firms vie for rich government contracts. At the same time they are co-operating with each other also. For example, a guidance system built by General Motor's electronics division will tell the Apollo space vehicle how to behave while it is soaring upward under power of Chrysler's Saturn booster rocket.

The biggest money-maker in the war and space business is General Motors which sold 459 million dollars in research and equipment last year. Ford, maker of guided missiles, sold 262 million dollars military and space equipment to government last year. Chrysler is close behind, having sold 245 million dollars worth to the government.

Chrysler which also builds missiles and tanks has employed 5500 workers in space and war jobs.

Scientists employed by Philco Corporation, subsidiary of Ford, are testing models of a "laboratory" which is expected to be landed on Mars in the early 1970s. Huge subsidies are being paid by the government in the name of scientific research to this company.

--- People's Democracy, April 24, 1966