The Hindu Business Line : Govt confident of holding price line: Chidambaram

ASSURING PRICE STABILITY: (From Left) The Wipro Chairman, Mr Azim Premji; the Infosys Chief Mentor, Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy; the Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, and the Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr H.D. Kumaraswamy, at the inauguration of the World Customs Organisation ICT conference & exhibition in Bangalore on Thursday. — Bhagya Prakash K.

Bangalore , April 6

The Government is confident of maintaining price stability despite high international oil prices.

Speaking to newspersons today, the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram: "Inflation is 3.96 per cent. Any rate under four per cent is a welcome development."

However, he added, the Government was concerned about high international oil prices that are currently close to $65 a barrel. Nevertheless, price stability will be maintained, he said.

Referring to the strike by employees of SBI, the Finance Minister said: "There is no justification for the strike. There is no need to inconvenience customers."

He also said that the unions had pointed out to anomalies in the agreement entered into 2002 when the NDA Government was in power. "They (unions) have put forward suggestions and the management is looking into it."

The strike relates to pension benefits to SBI employees, who get three benefits - gratuity, contributory provident fund, and a pension, unlike other public sector bank employees who get only two benefits. "When negotiations are on, where is the need to inconvenience customers?"

Mr Chidambaram refused to comment on speculations on a possible reduction in the cash reserve ratio, after his meeting with the Reserve Bank of India officials on Wednesday.

But he said that discussions on the Credit Policy were "routinely done with the RBI."

Earlier, speaking at the inauguration of the inauguration of the World Customs Organisation, Information Technology Conference, the Finance Minister said that Customs could cease to be a long-term source of revenue for the Government.Currently, Customs duties account for about 20 per cent of the Government's tax revenues.

Instead, the focus of Customs would be on enforcement and facilitation of international trade, he added.

India is a significant contributor to the WCO's efforts in standardisation and harmonisation of data requirements.

This was for development of a WCO Customs data model and in the formation of ICT guidelines under the Kyoto protocol.

Other areas of contribution are in the use of PKI (public key infrastructure) technology for ensuring security and helpdesk management in an Internet-based environment.

With increased risk management techniques in place, cargo clearance would be done in a matter of hours rather than days. For this purpose, some reengineering and restructuring of the Customs Department was under way, he said. This is expected to be completed within a year.

Such advances could create opportunities for the Indian IT sector, since Customs would be outsourcing the business. "But they will have to compete for a slice of that business."