The Hindu : Front Page : CPI(M) plans nationwide campaign against price rise

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CPI(M) plans nationwide campaign against price rise

Vinay Kumar

Party Congress asks UPA government to take corrective steps

Government asked to strengthen PDS
Ban futures trading in farm commodities

COIMBATORE: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Sunday decided to launch a nationwide campaign after April 15 against rising prices of essential commodities which, it said, had hit the working class and the middle class hard.

In a resolution, adopted unanimously on the second day of the ongoing 19th party Congress here, the CPI(M) asked the United Progressive Alliance government to immediately check the spiralling prices.

Price rise and high inflation rate figured prominently in the inaugural address of CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Saturday.

The party Congress demanded that the public distribution system be strengthened by universalising it; the cut in foodgrain allocations to States under the PDS be done away with; 15 essential commodities such as pulses, edible oil and sugar be included in the PDS; futures trading in 25 agricultural commodities be banned as proposed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution; customs and excise duties on oil be cut and restructured; retail prices of petrol and diesel be reduced; and, last, it demanded stringent action against hoarding of essential commodities and strengthening of the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act to empower State governments to deal with hoarding and black marketing.

Briefing reporters, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said the 19th Congress resolved to intensify the struggle against price rise.

Neo-liberal approach

He said the conclave called upon the UPA government to shed its neo-liberal approach and initiate steps to check the price rise. The party would talk to like-minded political parties and associate them in the agitation.

Communist Party of India general secretary A.B. Bardhan, who was a special invitee to the Congress, on Saturday announced his party’s decision to launch a movement against price rise from April 17. Noting that the prices of wheat, rice, edible oil, sugar and pulses had increased by 15 to 20 per cent in the last year, the resolution said the majority of the working people did not have a fixed income and had no protection against inflation. “Such huge increase in the prices of essential commodities constitutes a regressive redistribution of income from the poor to the rich.”

Charging the UPA government with not being interested in reversing the decision taken by the BJP-led NDA government in April 2003 to permit futures trading in agricultural commodities, the resolution said that it enabled speculators to enter the commodity futures market in a big way and influence the prices of essential commodities.

“While futures trading in wheat, rice and pulses was banned in 2007 under severe pressure from the CPI(M) and other Left parties, the UPA government is eager to lift the ban and also permit foreign entities to trade in Indian commodity futures markets,” the resolution said.

It noted that the increase in petrol and diesel prices for the eighth time during the UPA rule had a cascading impact on prices of essentials. “The Central government has collected over Rs. 40,000 crore more in 2007-08 in import duties on oil than what it had budgeted due to the ad valorem structure of customs and excise duties, whereby the government’s revenues also increase along with the price of oil,” it said.

The resolution charged the UPA government with ignoring the suggestion made by the CPI(M) and other Left parties on restructuring the Customs and Excise duties on oil and said the government, instead, chose to hike petroleum prices in keeping with rising international oil prices.

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