Opposition parties on Wednesday sought to pressurise the Government to bring down food prices, reduce the number of cess and pass on the benefits of low petroleum prices to the consumers.
During a short duration discussion on price rise in the country in Rajya Sabha, the Opposition charged the Government with burdening the common man with more taxes and higher prices of essential commodities and medicines while pocketing the benefits of low petroleum prices in international market.
The Government, however, passed the buck on the State Governments for not procuring food items directly from the farmers, or lifting the material from Centre’s godowns.
Minister for Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan, in response to the discussion, blamed States for not cracking down on the hoarders and blackmarketeers, who were creating artificial crisis.
“The State Governments have more responsibility in checking rising food prices. We are giving Dals to 81 crore people under the PDS. When we provide subsidised food material to States why don’t they pass on the benefits to the consumersIJ” Paswan said. The Minister added that despite a global fall in production of Dal from 75 million metric tonnes in 2012 to 71 million MT last year, the Government has imported huge quantity of Dals. He said the latest agreement with Mozambique on Dal procurement will also help.
Prabhat Jha of the BJP defended the Government claiming that contrary to Opposition’s allegations, price rise was prevalent in the 10 years of UPA rule. He and some other treasury bench members quoted steps taken by the BJP-ruled States to curb price rise.
However, the unrelenting Opposition kept comparing present rates of goods with the past. Both sides traded charges and quoted figures with some even accusing the Government of fudging numbers and calculations on inflation to suit itself.
Initiating the discussion, TMC leader Derek O’Brien said it is worse to be vegetarian in India than a non-vegetarian because even though prices of meat and fish seems to be under-controlled, the prices of vegetables and Dals are all time high. “Fudging of numbers and calculations is not what people of India want,” he said.
CPI-M member Sitaram Yechury urged the Government to immediately ban the futures and forward trading in all essential items and stop cess and excise duty hike in order to provide relief to common people. Asserting that fuel prices and several kinds of cess have burdened consumers, Yechury attacked the Centre for raising excise duty on petrol and diesel and not passing the benefits of the fall in global crude prices to consumers. Yechury further said imposition of several types of cess and hike in service tax to 14 per cent has led to inflationary situation in many essential items.
“All cess put together, these are extra burden on the consumers, leading to price rise,” he said, noting that the NDA Government was earning revenue from cess and excise duty on petroleum items. Yechury said unemployment was also hitting the people hard and blamed the Government for not creating enough jobs in the country.