New Delhi, Nov 24 (IANS): The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Thursday blamed the government for rising food prices and sought a ban on futures trading in sugar, wheat and other vital commodities.
The CPI-M called Finance Minister Pranab Mukhereje's statement of Tuesday on price rise "an exercise in deception to conceal the utter failure of the government in checking the relentless price rise".
It said in a statement that among the G-20 countries, India had the highest rate of consumer price inflation. It also said that the government was complacent on the sharp fall of the rupee vis-à-vis the dollar.
"The depreciation of the rupee is adding to inflationary pressures because India has to import oil and fertilizers.
"Rather than protecting the interests of the ordinary consumers by stabilizing the rupee value, the government seems to be catering to the speculative interests who benefit from market volatility."
The CPI-M said that rupee was getting depreciated mainly because foreign institutional investors were pulling out "massive amounts of funds from the Indian capital market.
"The CPI-M has been constantly warning the government against liberalization of speculative capital flows but the government has refused to put any curbs.
"It is not excessive demand that is fuelling inflation but the hike in prices of a range of goods and services such as petrol and diesel prices, fertilizers, other agricultural inputs, power tariffs, transport charges.
"Cuts in subsidies have resulted in cost push inflation and is having a cascading impact on food prices.
"The government is refusing to use the public distribution system effectively to provide an alternative source of cheaper food items for mass consumption."
The CPI-M asmed the government to direct the Reserve Bank of India to intervene to stabilize the rupee. It said speculative FII flows had to be curbed.
It demanded a rollback on fuel price hikes, cut in indirect taxes on petro-products, checking fertilizer prices by enhancing subsidy, opening the public distribution system for all, and prohibiting futures trading in sugar, wheat and other essential commodities.