India warned on Friday that it will not hesitate to take stern measures against hoarders and profiteers in view of the spiraling prices of essential commodities.
"We will not hesitate to take the strictest measures, including using legal provisions against hoarding and profiteering whether in food, cement or steel," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said.
The minister, who is in Singapore to attend the Incredible India @ 60 event showcasing the growth of a resurgent India, told reporters that though there was the provision of 18G of the Industrial Act, "we don't propose to use it."
Nath said the biggest task was to provide food to the poor. "Our biggest challenge with India is the supply side management especially in the Below Poverty Line."
Referring to the ban on rice exports, Nath said the cut had been calibrated by global prices of rice. "We have great supply side challenges in India, where we are moving from one meal a day to providing people two meals a day," he said.
Meanwhile, Nath said India has witnessed a record increase in exports, even though some sectors had gone down, "despite challenges in oil, appreciation of rupee, we have had good performance."
Speaking on the new foreign trade policy, to be announced on April 11, he said the new policy would feature incentives for employment generation. The minister said India was concerned about the 'frenzy' of the global slowdown and its possible impact on the economy.
"One is the numbers effect, one is the frenzy effect," Nath said, adding that India has to guard itself against the frenzy effect.
"India has a momentum of its own, it is not an externally driven economy. It has a diverse trade basket with no single dependency on one country or region," the minister said, adding that India had a very high percentage of most favoured nation trade.
The commerce minister said there were only minor issues with Indonesia before the Asean India FTA could be concluded.
Earlier, inaugurating the 'Incredibleindia@60' business conference, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the government of India, Nath said India had created more jobs in the US compared to the country creating jobs in India.
"China has its own genius, they excel in manufacturing. We have our own genius, we excel in areas that need technology," the minister said.
In a lighter vein, he noted that, "the US used to talk to us about bank practices, now their best practices had led to sub prime," adding the frenzy of the slowdown was bound to affect the world economy.
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