Govt to act against hoarders: Nath

SINGAPORE, April 4: The Union commerce and industry minister, Mr Kamal Nath today said the government would not hesitate to act against hoarders and profiteers, even as he admitted supply side management was a challenge to controlling prices of essential commodities. “We will not hesitate to take the strictest steps, including using legal provisions against hoarding and profiteering whether in food, cement or steel,” Mr Nath, who is on a visit here, told reporters today. On 31 March, the Union government had asked states to initiate steps under the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act to check hoarding. Mr Nath, however, said that though there was the provision of 18G of the Industrial Act, “we don't propose to use it.” Section 18G empowers the Centre to control supply, distribution, price etc, of certain articles. He said the biggest task was to provide food to the poor. “Our biggest challenge is the supply side...” The government has been grappling with rising prices of food, metal and other manufactured items which have pushed up inflation to a 39-month high of seven per cent. The Cabinet Committee on Prices had decided to abolish import duty on crude edible oil, cut duty on refined oils and ban export of non-basmati rice to check prices. The government also convinced steel makers to cut prices of key products. Finance secretary, Mr Subbarao had said that the government was open to taking more steps to tame inflation to bring it within tolerable limit (below five per cent). He also said global slowdown is expected to bring commodity prices down, as US recession has led to fall in commodity rates. Referring to the ban on rice exports, Mr Nath said the cut had been calibrated by global prices of rice. “We have great supply side challenges in India, where we are moving from one meal a day to providing people two meals a day,” he said. Meanwhile, he said India has witnessed a record increase in exports, even though some sectors had gone down, “despite challenges from oil and appreciation of rupee, we have had good performance.” On the new foreign trade policy, to be announced on 11 April, he said it would feature incentives for job generation. The minister said India was concerned about the 'frenzy' of the global slowdown and its possible impact on the economy. “One is the numbers effect, one is the frenzy effect,” Mr Nath said, adding that India has to guard itself against the frenzy effect. “India has a momentum of its own, it is not an externally driven economy. It has a diverse trade basket with no single dependency on one country or region,” the minister said adding India had a very high percentage of most favoured nation (MFN) trade. The commerce minister said there were only minor issues with Indonesia before the Asean India FTA could be concluded. Earlier, inaugurating the 'Incredibleindia@60' business conference, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Government of India, Mr Nath said India had created more jobs in the USA compared to that country creating jobs in India. “China has its own genius, they excel in manufacturing. We have our own genius, we excel in areas that need technology,” the minister said. In a lighter vein, he noted that, “the USA used to talk to us about bank practices, now their best practices had led to the sub-prime crisis,” adding the frenzy of the slowdown was bound to affect the world economy.
Press Trust of India THE STATESMAN