Monsoon Session: Pranab to reply on price rise

New Delhi: In the Opposition line of fire over the price rise issue, it will be chief Congress troubleshooter finance minister Pranab Mukherjee who will field the government's response in Parliament on Thursday.

The senior Congress leader came under a flurry of attacks when former finance minister Yashwant Sinha warned the government that it would be forced to tell it to "go, for God's sake", if it failed to check the price rise spiral at the earliest.

Sinha asked the government to check price rise and ensure that the issue is not raised in the Winter Session of the Parliament on Wednesday.

Check growth if needed to cut prices: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday launched a stinging criticism of United Progressive Alliance Government's economic policies claiming that due to rising prices more and more Indians were slipping below the poverty line.

Staring the debate on price rise in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, BJP MP and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha quoted reports of different agencies to buttress his claims that the growth rates being projected by the Government was doing nothing to help the common man.

He said that the Government should take immediate steps to check inflation and bring relief to the common man.

"Growth with moderate inflation is acceptable. If inflation is inevitable with the growth then it is unacceptable. We do not want any growth of the economy if people in the country are dying of hunger. It's a serious thought. Why is the government going crazy for growth of the economy?" said the former finance minister.

Reminding the Government that it had been reprimanded even by the Supreme Court on the rotting grain issue, Sinha asked the government to release the stocks and see how the prices will be controlled.

"This country will not accept inflation rate more than three per cent," he said.

He claimed that price rise was only helping black marketers and hoarders at the expense of the common man and the Government and added that corruption was also one of the reasons behind spiralling prices.

"Corruption will only need to conspicuous consumption. If there is conspicuous consumption then there price rise cannot be controlled," he claimed.

Sinha said that a survey by the Asian Development Bank suggests that 5 crore people have gone below poverty line in India despite the Government's projection that the economy was growing at almost nine per cent per annum.

"Almost 60 per cent of the expenditure of every household is just on the food," said Sinha while adding that the food budget of a majority of Indians had shot up many folds in the last three years.

Pointing to a CRISIL report Sinha said that the expenditure on household budget in India has crossed over Rs 6 lakh crore.

"This is a huge burden on the common man. This is besides the tax that a common man already pays. We don't have to make the Prime Minister, who is also an economist understand that the worst form of taxation on the poor is price rise," he said while pointing towards Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

He alleged that the much-touted comprehensive food pricing and management policy of the Government has failed.

"Despite repeated discussions on price rise in the House the burden of price rise on common man is continuing. Expressing deep concern over price rise this House calls upon the Government to take immediate effective steps to check inflation that will give relief to common man. Parliament is not a place to talk; this is not a school debate. We have had 12 discussions in Parliament over price rise but no results have come out of those discussions," said Sinha while moving the motion on price rise.

He also challenged the Government to take lessons from the Opposition on how to control price rise, adding that if the BJP wants want then it can control price rise in two months.

"If we want then we can control price rise in two months. We can tell the Government how to do it. The Government cannot be helpless and hopeless," he claimed.

He accused the Government of increasing fuel prices even when the prices of essential commodities were at its peak.

Quoting from Economic Survey 2010-2011 he pointed out that the Government had been trying to ensure that procured food is not released which would inflicts too large a loss to the Government.

"Not releasing food grains defeats the purpose of controlling food prices in the market.

Almost 6.5 crore tonnes of grain is lying in government godowns unused," he said.

While showing Business India's cover page which showed Manmohan Singh's picture with a tag of no confidence, Sinha alleged that the Government was passing the inflation buck to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He added that the RBI had raised interest rates 11 times in the last few months.