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Negative list has no approval: Achutanandan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan reiterated here on Friday that the negative list cited by the Union government as applicable to the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement did not have the approval of the other signatories of the agreement.

The Chief Minister acknowledged that he had received the list of 489 items from the Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma.

However, there was no point in speaking about a negative list as along as it did not have the approval of all the signatories.

The agreement would come into force from January next year. The government should tax items in the list which had not been approved by the ASEAN members. Then only could the farmers be saved from fall in prices of agricultural commodities.

Mr. Achuthanandan protested against the Centre’s move to sell the shares of profit-making government companies. “What do Union Ministers A.K. Antony and Vayalar Ravi have to say about that?”

He also complained that the Centre had reduced the subsidy sanctioned to Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited.

The subsidy cut would hit the farmers using fertilizers along with imports from ASEAN countries.

The Chief Minister announced that the Cabinet had decided to introduce online registration of companies. The system would also allow e-payment of stamp duty.

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