Responding to an energetic attack by Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi over unchecked inflation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the Lok Sabha on Thursday that the Centre intends to bring down the prices of pulses by increasing imports and creating additional buffer stock.

Replying to a discussion on price rise, Jaitley told the Lower House that a “good monsoon” would further bring down inflation, which, he claimed was under control, and hoped that the “rain gods this year will be as kind as they were to the UPA government.”

“You are talking about a government (UPA) which left behind double-digit inflation… Bluster is no substitute for statistics,” Jaitley said, in response to Gandhi’s attack on the Narendra Modi government for failing to rein in prices of pulses and vegetables.

Gandhi, who mocked the government by coining the slogan “ arhar Modi ” –– a tweak of the BJP’s preferred slogan of “ har har Modi, ghar ghar Modi” –– demanded that the Prime Minister provide a date by which the prices of pulses would come down.

“You may make as many hollow promises as you want, but give us a date by which the prices of dal will come down,” Gandhi said during the debate.

In his first major intervention this Monsoon Session, the Gandhi scion said the prices of pulses and vegetables had gone through the roof after the NDA came to power. He also highlighted that farmers had not got any benefit despite the steep rise in the price of these commodities.

Gandhi said there was a difference of ₹130 between the minimum support price (MSP) and the market price of toor dal now. “During our tenure, the difference between the MSP and market price was only ₹30. Where is this ₹100 going?” Gandhi queried.

Jaitley said monthly statistics revealed that prices of pulses were coming down. The Finance Minister asked Gandhi not to look for a corruption angle in the rise in prices of pulses. Two consecutive years of drought and rise in input costs may be to blame, he noted.

Jaitley said India was the highest producer and consumer of pulses. While demand stood at 23 million tonnes, production was 17 million tonnes.

The Minister also said pulses output was expected to go up to 20 million tonnes this crop year. The Food Ministry, he added, would create a buffer of 2 million tonnes to keep prices in check.

The Centre was working on policies to encourage farmers to produce more and India was moving towards self-sufficiency in pulses produce, Jaitley claimed. “Even today the corruption scandals that emerge are those of the UPA and not [that of the] NDA…We have contained inflation despite two years of drought. Good monsoon helps economy and with good monsoon [rains] this year, I expect that the prices of pulses will come down,” Jaitley said.

Where did the money go?

Jaitley defended the Centre’s management of the oil economy, stating that its three-pronged strategy in dealing with the savings from falling global crude oil prices had served the country well, besides helping consumers and oil marketing companies.

He urged the UPA to desist from indulging in “back-of-the-envelop calculations” on economic data, stating it will only be “misleading”. Gandhi had sought to know how the Centre had used the ₹2-lakh crore savings and wondered if it would not have been better to pass on the benefits to consumers.

Jaitley said the savings from the fall in global oil prices were used in three parts — for the benefit of oil PSUs; as direct benefits to consumers; and for public investment in infrastructure.

“Thanks to this increased public investment, and also the sharp increase in foreign direct investments, India has been able to achieve a respectable growth rate and remain as the fastest-growing large economy in the last two years. I still believe our economic growth potential is even higher,” Jaitley added.

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