FM to meet Left on Feb 2 over ‘idle resources’

Even though the Congress may have warned the Left to stay within limits while criticising the government, Finance Minister P Chidambaram&#14...

Even though the Congress may have warned the Left to stay within limits while criticising the government, Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s February 2 meeting with the Left parties over their proposal on resource mobilisation is likely to focus on issues on which the Left and the UPA government share a common view.

Some of these points were already discussed at the UPA-Left Coordination panel meet earlier when the government had said that it would consider key Left proposal on resource mobilisation like tapping idle resources of PSUs.

The government had misgivings on this because they could impact on the PSUs’ autonomy. But it has now suggested that it could seek special dividends from fully government-owned PSUs, a Left proposal, to mop up funds.

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However, the FM’s statement on selling small portions of equity in profit-making non-Navratna PSUs will go against the Left’s stand that this was not the way to raise funds. The Left had earlier agreed to consider the proposal and discuss such investment on a case-to-case basis, but later backed under pressure from trade unions.

Sources said that there were other meeting points between the UPA and the Left such as corporate taxation and tax rationalisation. The government, however, has said that it is not possible to take up the proposal for collecting tax arrears of over Rs 1,00,000 crore as these are caught up in litigation.

The Left will also take up key proposals on raising the tax-GDP ratio and introducing a surcharge on taxing luxury purchases at the meeting.

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