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Centre blamed for price rise

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Monday blamed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for the increase in prices of essential commodities and said the common man was the worst-affected.

Firing another salvo at the Central government, the Chief Minister said the fact that the rate of inflation had gone up to 5.11 per cent was indicative of the Centre’s failure to arrest the galloping prices.

Ms. Mayawati said the State government was making all possible efforts to check the prices.

The Chief Minister said the increase in the prices of petrol by Rs.2 a litre and of diesel by Rs.1 a litre had resulted in the increase in transportation cost. The Centre should have decreased the prices in the interests of the people, Ms. Mayawati said at a press conference here.

While the Chief Minister admitted that the rates of items of daily use such as wheat flour, “maida”, “suji”, vanaspati ghee, desi ghee, spices, rice, infant food, mustard oil, medicines and certain electrical appliances had gone up, she placed the onus for the price rise on the Central government. The State government had either decreased their prices or kept them unchanged under the Value Added Tax (VAT).

Ms. Mayawati rejected the allegation that the price rise was due to the imposition of VAT in Uttar Pradesh and said that the tax rates had gone down following the implementation of the new tax regime. Within a month of the implementation of the new tax structure, tax revenue had registered an increase of 6.7 per cent in February 2008, as compared to the same period in 2007 when the previous regime, influenced by vested interests, refused to introduce the new tax measure, she said. “The State’s tax revenue is expected to increase in the coming years.”

Defending VAT, the Chief Minister said it was in the interest of consumers, traders and the government. Ms. Mayawati said that as a result of the previous government’s decision, Uttar Pradesh fell out of the country’s economic mainstream.

Under VAT, the tax rates of 436 out of the total 1,861 commodities were brought down, while the rates of 1,376 articles were not increased. A nominal increase in the rate of 49 commodities has been enforced, which would hardly impact the common man, Ms. Mayawati claimed.

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