Pranab defends Govt's strategy to combat inflation

The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has refuted Opposition's charge that the Government had done little to bring down the prices of essential commodities and provide relief to the common man from the runaway inflation in the country.

He maintained that the Government action has helped maintain a leash on the prices of many essential commodities.

Replying to discussion on the situation arising out of unprecedented rise in the prices of food and other essential commodities, Mr Mukherjee told the Rajya Sabha that the prices of many essential commodities had become cheaper or gone up only marginally in the last two years.

Retail prices of 30 essential commodities including that of rice, wheat and pulses have either dropped or registered only marginal increase during the last two years, he said.

“It is not correct to say that Government has not done anything. If the Government had not done anything, prices would not have come down. Prices do not remain static,” Mr Mukherjee said.

The Finance Minister noted that the retail price of rice in the Delhi market had increased by Re 1 to Rs 24 from Rs 23 a kg in the last two years. Also, the retail price of wheat had gone up from Rs 14.5 a kg to Rs 15 in the last two years, he said.

Mr Mukherjee highlighted that food inflation which was over 22 per cent in February 2010 had now come down to little over 6 per cent now. However, Opposition members staged a walkout as they were not satisfied with the reply given by the Finance Minister.

On the recent trend of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) withdrawing money from the Indian market , Mr Mukherjee admitted that this had shaken the confidence of domestic investors.

>krsrivats@thehindu.co.in

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