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Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008
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Congress wants an ‘aam aadmi’ budget

Special Correspondent

Farm suicides, oil prices top priorities

NEW DELHI: The office-bearers of the All-India Congress Committee will convey to the Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram that the 2008 budget should be an “aam aadmi” budget when he comes to 24, Akbar Road office of the party on Wednesday.

Mr. Chidambaram will hold consultations with the Congress Working Committee members, the general secretaries and other office bearers on the budget.

The agrarian crisis, farmers’ suicides, price rise, petrol price hike, raising the interest on home loans and such issues concerning the “aam aadmi” would be on top of the Congress priorities for the budget, said senior Congress leader and Chairman of the AICC Media Committee, Veerappa Moily.

Mr. Moily, who also heads the Department of Policy, Planning and Coordination (DEPCO), , said the department would submit a document of the party’s expectations on the budget. “The budget must reflect the programmes in the United Progressive Alliance government’s Common Minimum Programme.”

He said the party’s stand was that the fuel hike should be “tempered” as it was bound to have a “cascading effect” on all commodities and on inflation. Subsidies on fertilizers, seeds and other farmer inputs should continue to boost agriculture growth. Credit for farmers should be raised and there should be livelihood security for the people.

At the same time, party members believed that for “faster and inclusive growth,” the budget should include proposals for higher interest rate for home loans as well as rise in the income tax exemption limit.

The senior Congress leader said the futures market should be regulated and the ban on futures trading on commodities such as wheat, rice and pulses should not be lifted. “There is no case for lifting the ban as controlling price rise is high on our priority.”

According to Mr. Moily, the government was in the second year of the five-year plan and it should not go out of the radar of the aam admi. “We do not want a populist budget. The budget must reflect equity and prosperity. It should respond to the aam admi’s problems.”

This is the third year in a row that Mr. Chidambaram will hold consultations with the Congress party’s office-bearers on their expectations of the budget.

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