The Cabinet Committee on Prices chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday reviewed inflation, including rising onion prices and decided to take further measures like cut in taxes and improving supply of essential commodities.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, spokesman of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who has been given the task of looking after the Assembly elections in Chattisgarh, accused the Centre of betraying the common man by allowing steep rise in the prices of essential commodities and putting the country into an era of food insecurity.
Ahead of the crucial meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Prices for considering options to tame rising inflation, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said on Monday the government is looking at further cuts in duties on import of essential commodities. "Yes, we are looking at further cuts. There is increase in international oil prices and it has to be met with import duty caliberation which we are considering," Nath told reporters in New Delhi.
The United Progressive Alliance government has failed to address the agrarian crisis and the price rise of essential commodities and there is a need for a third alternative, Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat said on Saturday. Speaking at the party's 19th Congress in Coimbatore, Karat said this third alternative cannot be merely an electoral alliance.
Responding to concerns over the rise in inflation to 5.45 per cent, Finance Minister P Chidabaram said on Sunday that there was a supply-side constraint on essential commodities like pulses and the government would look at higher duty-free imports
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday exuded confidence that inflation would further decline and the government is on track to meet its budgetary target for deficit and said that there is no fear of stagflation in India. Replying to the debate on first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants 2022-23 in Lok Sabha, the finance minister said inflation has come down and it is now in the tolerable band of the RBI. Inflation has been declining since April 2022 and it is declining further, she said.
The government on Monday ruled out making public the RBI report detailing the reasons why the central bank could not keep inflation within the targeted 6 per cent upper limit for the three consecutive quarters. "Yes sir, RBI has furnished a report to the central government, as mandated under Section 45ZN of the RBI Act, 1934 and Regulation 7 of RBI Monetary Policy Committee and Monetary Policy process Regulations, 2016," minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply. The said provisions of the RBI Act, 1934, and regulations therein does not provide for making the report public, he said.
Here are the 10 key issues likely to be the centre of discussion in the seven-phase general elections that begin on April 19.
"SP had supported the UPA government to fight communal forces, but it has utterly failed to do so," he claimed.
Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Sunday reiterated that the Centre was ready to talk to the farmers protesting against the new agriculture laws, and said that mere gathering of crowd does not lead to revocation of legislations.
India's inflation rate shot up to its highest level in more than 16 years this month, increasing the chances of the fourth rise in interest rates in Asia's third-largest economy since June.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is learnt to have asked Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar to ensure that the supply of sugar, edible oil and pulses is not hampered during the ensuing Diwali and Navratra festivals.
Despite winning several times in court against the primary school council of the West Bengal government's education department, Sengupta has not been able to get his proper salary as per the present pay scale. The latest order in his favour from the high court came on Thursday, but Sengupta was sceptical after the fate of earlier orders.
Finance minister has made life difficult for seniors under the pretext of preventing tax frauds.
Amid indication that prices of compressed natural gas (CNG) may go up in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said if the hike is allowed, it would compound the problem of the common people who are already hit hard by price rise.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Thursday that the government would ensure ample supplies of essential commodities including food grains to check prices and assured more fiscal steps to contain inflationary pressures.
With both friends and foes warning that spiralling prices of essential commodities might sound the 'death knell' for the Manmohan Singh government, reining in inflation will be a task for the UPA to accomplish to escape the ire of voters. As the government is caught in the web of coalition politics, the Congress-led UPA has to do a tight-rope walk so as not to annoy its Left partners and at the same time keep the voters in good humour by containing inflation.
'Internal security, inflation and incompetence' of the United Progressive Alliance government are going to be the buzzwords of the saffron party to attack the Congress in the 2009 elections. "The Congress claims to champion the cause of the common man. And it is the same common man who is suffering because of this government's policies," party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said. While deciding the BJP nominees, the formula would be "party, principle and personality."
Almost 50% respondents said Modi has not done enough to check prices of essential commodities.
Rajnath Singh, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has predicted two third majority for the Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in the Assembly polls in Punjab for which the voting will conclude at 5 pm on Tuesday.
There has been relaxation in curfew for women and children on Friday to help them collect essential commodities being distributed in the area.
"These are essential commodities which have great impact on inflationary expectations," Reddy told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Mumbai on Monday. High food and crude oil prices were in a way anticipated and 'the pressures have been flat,' he said.
Several Biharis from worst-hit Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts are opting to leave the state.
Rejection of the three central agriculture laws is one of the three resolutions approved by the Maharashtra cabinet on Sunday which will be moved in the monsoon session of the state legislature beginning Monday, sources said.
The government will have to move a bill in Parliament to repeal the three agri laws, which were at the centre of protests by farmers for the past year, Constitution and legal experts said on Friday.
Despite the government's efforts to control prices, inflation continues to rise, as prices of pulses, spices, eggs, fish and meat among other things continued to rise.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday squarely blamed those with political agenda for the deadlock in the Centre's talks with protesting farmers.
Labh Singh, who runs a salon in Kurukshetra, has put up a stall a Singhu border and is providing free service to the protesting farmers. He has come with five workers.
'I was posted in different states of the country. We are also the son of a farmer. I come here as a farmer'
The report, which was submitted to the apex court on March 19, 2021, was made public on Monday. The three-member committee had also suggested many changes in the laws, including giving freedom to states to make Minimum Support Price (MSP) system legal.
'Interestingly in spite of slightly more than half (52%) the respondent farmers opposing the three new agri laws, almost 44% respondent farmers said the Modi government was 'pro-farmer'
Decrying the hike in diesel prices as "unjustified" action, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday demanded its roll back and withdrawal of powers granted to oil companies to regulate fuel prices.
Olympic medallist boxer Vijender Singh, who joined the farmers' agitation at the Haryana-Delhi border on Sunday, said he will return his Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award if the Centre's new farm laws are not withdrawn.
Former finance minister P Chidambaram on Friday rejected Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's contention in Lok Sabha that UPA government left behind double digit inflation.
The Congress president also came down heavily on the BJP over the Adani issue.
