Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said that seasonal supply side issues were contributing to inflation and the government was actively monitoring these issues. She said efforts were being made to address the situation and reduce the prices of essential commodities.
Sitharaman, addressing a press conference in poll-bound Karnataka said, “Efforts are continually being made by the Central government to make sure the prices are brought down. That is why the CPI (Consumer Price Index ) has come down from 6 per cent to 5.8 per cent and 5.7 per cent and so on. So seasonal supply side problems add to inflation which we have to continuously monitor and continuously make efforts to bring down the price.”
She also said that attempts have been made to lower the cost of petrol and natural gas. The minister said these are imports coming into the country and the prices are high in the global market due to the impact of Covid and the Russia-Ukraine war.
“On prices, since November 2021, when the Prime Minister himself has instructed us to reduce the excise duty on fuel, as a result before Deepavali one announcement was made. Then sometime in June 2022, again we reduced the excise duty further. As a result, price of fuel came down somewhat,” Sitharaman said responding to a question on price rise and measures being taken by the government.
“But when we are speaking about fuel or natural gas, we need to understand one thing: these are products which are imported, and particularly after Covid and particularly even more after the war between Russia and Ukraine, the prices have been going up and in spite of that, we are importing. Central government’s bit (domain), which is the tax excise, has been brought down. Karnataka also reduced the price in November 2021,” the Finance Minister further said.
Sitharaman said, “We have cut down the customs duty so that the imported edible oil can come, so that the edible oil prices can be brought down.”
There are a Group of Ministers (GoM) who sit and look at essential commodities and prices and therefore continuously monitor the release of stocks.
Responding to former CM Siddaramaiah’s attack on the BJP, Sitharaman reminded everyone as to how Congress “shamelessly” insulted and sacked its former chief minister Veerendra Patil.
Siddaramaiah had targeted Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his remark that the May 10 Assembly election is about entrusting the future of Karnataka into the hands of PM Narendra Modi.
Nirmala Sitharamaian said, “What’s wrong in the state being entrusted into the hands of India’s Prime Minister? To that PM who is taking the whole country together and is concentrating even on the development of districts… If such a PM’s name is being taken, why are they (Congress leaders) getting irritated? They might have forgotten….they are the ones who used to say Sonia Gandhi is everything for Bharat. The ‘ghulams’ (slaves) of one family are saying this?”