There must be incentives through which natural resources can be conserved and regenerated. Just as we have incentives for investments in plants and equipment, we must have incentives for those who invest in healthy natural resources like healthy forests, good soil, clean air, clean water whatever. We have to build this into our budgetary practices. Let us talk of energy efficiency. With the opening of the economy and the increasing environmental pressure, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the small scale industry to remain competitive.
Some provisions have to be made to assist small-scale industry to manage inefficient energy use.
They need help to upgrade their technology as they would otherwise suffer greatly in a globalised economy. The finance minister has talked of energy audits and also a time barred programme for the installation of hundred per cent metering of electric meters. That is good. This should be good. In rural areas, consumers pay a lump sum for power consumption as they do not have meters.