The UPA-Left Coordination Committee on Thursday skirted the vexed issue of EPF rate for the current fiscal, but the Left parties opposed the privatisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports even while agreeing that their modernisation was needed urgently.
At the two-hour meeting, attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and held over a month before the Union Budget for 2006-07, a note on resource mobilisation submitted by Left parties was discussed and it was decided that Finance Minister P Chidambaram will hold a separate meeting with the Left parties 'to discuss the suggestions in greater detail.'
"Privatisation cannot be allowed in the garb of modernisation, which is needed to decongest the two busy airports," CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters after the meeting.
Chidambaram said the Left parties' note on airport modernisation would be sent to the e-GoM which would take that into account.
"There is an urgency to complete the modernisation of these two airports. With regard to the urgency, it was decided that the government may take a suitable decision," he said, talking to reporters along with the CPI(M) leader.
On the EPF rate reduction, which has caused anger among the Left parties and trade unions, both Chidambaram and Yechury said the matter did not figure at Thursday's meeting.
Yechury said the EPF issue would first be taken up by the central trade unions, which have given a call for country-wide demonstration on January 20 with the Union Labour Minister. The coming visit of US President George Bush also did not come up at the meeting. Similar was the case with the issue of divestment of profit-making PSUs.
Asked whether the FDI in telecom issue was raised by the Left parties in the backdrop of the controversy over phone-tapping, they replied in the negative with Yechury saying that the Left's concerns in the matter were well known.
On resource mobilisation, Chidambaram explained the steps already taken in this regard to augment resources.
He said the Left parties will hold separate meeting with the Finance Minister to discuss it in 'greater detail.'
On the issue of cut in food subsidy, Chidambaram said that the Left parties have been informed that the decision of the Cabinet has been 'put in abeyance' and that the government will hold discussions with political parties.
Besides the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi, the meeting was attended by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the finance minister, and political secretary to the congress president Ahmed Patel. The Left parties were represented by Prakash Karat and Yechury (both CPI-M), A B Bardhan and D Raja (both CPI) and D Biswas (Forward Bloc).
Chidambaram to hold talks with Left
Ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget 2006-07, Chidambaram will hold talks with Left parties on their suggestions to mobilise resources to fund ambitious social sector projects like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
"I will hold a separate meeting with the Left parties to discuss the suggestions in the note in greater detail," Chidambaram told reporters after the meeting of the Left-UPA Coordination Committee.
The Left parties, which have been opposing any move to divest profit-making public sector units, have in a note submitted to the UPA government suggested alternate steps to raise resources for funding social sector projects including taxing security transactions and capital inflows and increasing tax rates on luxury goods and services, including cars.
Observing that 'effective taxation' of the corporate sector was very low, the parties have also recommended imposition of payroll tax on employers, mopping up of tax arrears, crackdown on tax evasion and recovery of non-performing assets.
In a 13-point note, they have sought taxation of short-term capital gains be raised to 15 per cent to enhance revenue-generation and stabilise hot money flows.
Maintaining that the accumulated cash reserves of 50 central public sector undertakings amounted to over Rs 220,000 crore (Rs 2,200 billion) amounting to about 7.5 per cent of the GDP, the parties pointed out that there was under-investment in the PSUs and sought its reversal in order to reinvigorate these units.
