Marx invoked to break Left’s FDI barrier
SAMBIT SAHA Calcutta, July 30: Nothing sells more in Bengal than Karl Marx. And Marx it was that Union finance minister P. Chidambaram used to push for foreign investment in sectors where he faces opposition from Left parties.
Chidambaram, a Harvard-educated lawyer turned politician, quoted a piece by Marx in the New York Daily Tribune of 1853 to make a case for the free flow of foreign capital to India in all areas, especially the financial sector.
“It is notorious that the productive powers of India are paralysed by the utter want of means for conveying and exchanging its various produce. Nowhere, more than in India, do we meet with social destitution in the midst of natural plenty for want of the means of exchange,” the minister quoted from The Future Results of British Rule in India, at the inauguration of the Calcutta Leather Complex.
Had Marx been writing today, Chidambaram said, he would have talked about lack of insurance, banking and foreign exchange, among other things. The minister said the financial sector is critical for the development of the country and said capital must flow in to build infrastructure.
The minister’s statements came in the backdrop of Left parties’ opposition to opening up FDI floodgates in the banking, insurance and pension sectors.
The Left also opposed the government’s move to offload 10 per cent of its equity in Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, prompting an assurance from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi that the Centre will not sell off navratna companies.
He lauded work done with foreign investment in transport, water supply, sanitation, and health sectors and said this should be expanded to other areas.
“There is no need to fear capital. Those who have capital need not be capitalist. We have to see that capital is utilised for raising output, drive growth and raise resource to invest in the social sector.”
Chidambaram noted that saving is one of the most important instruments for investment and said the country must tap savings of other countries if it does not have enough. “Wise man saves, wiser borrows,” he quipped.
In a meeting with a chamber of commerce in the city, the minister said Bengal could regain pre-eminence in industry only by welcoming more capital. “Bengal has done well in agriculture, land reform, panchayat raj. It is time to do that in industry,” he said.
Royalty demand
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today placed the state’s demands for royalty on coal before Chidambaram, who said he would look into the matter and consult his colleague of the department concerned, says a staff reporter.
“The demands relate to the discrimination regarding non-payment of coal royalty we are not getting royalty on the pretext that the state is collecting cess on coal,” state finance minister Asim Dasgupta said. A recent Supreme Court judgement on this had gone in favour of the Bengal government, he said.
Dasgupta said Bengal had claimed Rs 250 crore per year on this head and the retrospective amount since 1991. The total would be Rs 3,000 crore.
Bhattacharjee and Dasgupta also discussed debt relief with Chidambaram. “Our state has a heavy burden on central loan related debt ,” Dasgupta said.
The main issue raised was to offer relief in small savings, which might bring the state government around Rs 1,000 crore every year.
The Bengal government also placed before Chidambaram its needs for improving infrastructure like the cargo handling facility at the city port and a demand for the development of the Sunderbans.
Chidambaram said the Centre would offer to help Bengal
improve its infrastructure.
The union minister added that the impact of value added tax had been satisfactory.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050731/asp/bengal/story_5056327.asp
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
__________________________________ Yahoo! Mail for Mobile Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone. http://mobile.yahoo.com/learn/mail