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The Left parties influencing the upcoming budget – India’s Finance Minister Chidambaram rules out cutting subsidies for poor
Two weeks ahead of the Budget, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, yesterday ruled out cutting down subsidies intended for the poor, but said the Government will ensure that they are better targeted.
It is slowly becoming clear that the left parties are influencing heavily the upcoming budget.
"The Government is committed to fulfilling its responsibility towards the welfare of the poor and downtrodden. There is absolutely no question of diluting this responsibility and cutting down subsidies intended for the poor," Chidambaram said at a Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting here.
"Efforts of the Government are directed to ensure that the benefits of subsidies are maximised by making them transparent, well designed and targeted," he said. In pursuant to the Common Minimum Programme mandate, the Finance Ministry had commissioned a study by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, whose report was presented in Parliament on December 23.
Chidambaram said the best way to ensure the benefits of the subsidy is to deliver these at target points like in the case of cooking gas LPG. He admitted that there are some difficulties in the procurement, storage and distribution of subsidised items and underlined the need for eliminating the inefficiency and wastage at these levels.
House panel members discussed various issues on subsidies for food, fertilizer and petroleum products. Voicing concern over the delivery mechanism for subsidies, members asked the Finance Minister to monitor the reduction in production costs, storage and distribution costs, introduction of food coupons, conversion of fertilizer plants into gas-based plants and phasing out of non-merit subsidies.
They also proposed separate rates for commercial and domestic use of LPG, incentive subsidy for employment-oriented production techniques, making fertilizer subsidy cultivator oriented and the inclusion of more backward areas for subsidy eligibility.
The meeting was attended by Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam, senior officials of the Ministry apart from Lok Sabha MPs like R Prabhu, K V Thangka Baalu, Prahlad Joshi, Vijaya Kumar Khandelwal, M Ramadass, D K Adikesavulu and Tarit Baran Topdar. Rajya Sabha MPs, including Ashwani Kumar, Giresh Kumar Sanghi, M Rajasekara Murthy, B J Panda, S M Laljan Basha, Lalit Suri, Amar Singh and Dinesh Trivedi, also attended the meeting.
BIZ/FINANCE ARTICLES
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