The total arrears demand of income tax and corporate tax stood at Rs 45,073.39 crore as on March 31, 1998, he added.

GDP growth: The RBI in its mid-term review of monetary and credit policy undertaken in October end says the real GDP growth rate during during 1998-99 is expected to be in the region of six per cent, Sinha said.

Fiscal deficit: Fiscal deficit is estimated to have risen to Rs 86,345 crore during 1997-98 as against Rs 66,733 crore during the previous year, Sinha said.

Coin import: The government will import 700 million pieces of one rupee coin and 300 million pieces of two rupee coins during 1998-99, the same amount as in the previous year, Sinha said. This is to overcome coin shortages, he said.

Cigarette revenues: The excise duty from cigarettes is estimated to have risen to Rs 4454crore during 1997-98 from Rs 3982 crore during the previous year, Sinha said.

Gold: The import of gold during third quarter of 1998 has dropped compared to the earlier months, though the figure is higher than that of the corresponding period of 1997, he said. The government has fixed a target of export of gold jewellery at $850 million for 1997-98, he said.

Deficit: Trade deficit during April-September this year has increased to $4991 million as compared to $2496 million during the same period last year both due to a slowdown in export growth and to increase in imports especially that of gold and silver, Commerce Minister R K Hegde said.

India's share in world exports was 0.64 per cent and import 0.75 per cent in 1997, he said. In all 340 items were shifted from restricted list to free list of imports in April this year and there has been no adverse impact of allowing import of these items so far, he said.

Leather: Various factors including recession in the international marketand re-emergence of European market with new production facilities have led to shortfall in export of leather and leather products from $1605.82 million in 1996-97 to $1589.11 million in 1997-98, he said.

Flowers: The value of flowers exported during 1997-98 increased to Rs 75.17 crore from Rs 50.43 crore in 1996-97, Hegde said.

Vitamin: The policy on import of vitamin B1 is under review, Hegde said adding that the pharmaceutical industry through their associations had approached the government to allow its import under open general license (OGL).

Computers: The electronic hardware industry is finding it difficult to realise full export potential and a special advance licence scheme for export of electronic products has been notified in September, he said.

The target fixed for export of computer software during 1997-98 was Rs 6518 crore against the actual export performance of Rs 6800 crore, Hegde informed.

Investment: Proposals envisaging NRI investment of Rs 7,44,902.60lakhs and foreign investment of Rs 1,75,03,189.20 lakhs have been approved from 1991 to October 1998, industry minister Sikander Bakht said. Moreover, 22 letters of intent for licensable case were issued with proposed foreign investment by various countries like Italy, Japan, Mauritius, Netherlands, Singapore, the UK and the US during 1997 and 1998, he said, adding the areas of investment are textiles, leather, industrial machinery, transportation and fuel.