Other States - Puducherry   

“Provide details of ban on export of commodities”

PUDUCHERRY: Central Committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) T. K. Rengarajan on Monday urged Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to come out with details regarding the ban imposed on export of certain essential commodities.

Mr. Rengarajan told The Hindu here that the Finance Minister’s remark on Sunday that the United Progressive Alliance government had relaxed the import of certain commodities and banned export of certain articles as part of steps to contain inflation.

On Mr. Chidambaram’s reference to the present level of growth rate at nine per cent, he said, “Jugglery of statistics would not help to solve the problem of inflation.”

Though growth was there, it had helped only a few persons in the upper strata of society, he added.

As in the case of the previous National Democratic Alliance government, the UPA government had created a “shining India” and also a “suffering India,” he said. The government should come forward to implement the viable suggestions made by the Left including CPI (M) to curb price rise, he said.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee had also unanimously recommended to the government to exclude 25 essential commodities from future trading.

But the government had not fully accepted it, he pointed out.

On the steep hike in the price of petrol and diesel, Mr. Rengarajan said merely quoting the escalating cost of crude oil in the international market would not help.

The Left parties had asked the government to alter the duty structure, besides levying the windfall tax on the “huge profits” earned by the private oil refineries, owing to “enormous concessions” provided by the government, he said.

Another major step the government should take was universalisation of the public distribution system, he said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

7,000 houses in coastal villages at the mercy of weather changes
“Provide details of ban on export of commodities”
BSNL staff protest
Smoke-free biogas is here
Drama festival on AIR
CPI to stage protest
Power shutdown
Rangasamy greets Karunanidhi

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu