ITC excise case: It’s UPA vs NDA in lower house

Raising the issue during zero hour, Congress MP Pawan Kumar Bansal, Ram Kripal Yadav (RJD) and other UPA members wanted the government to reveal the names since unnecessary conjectures were being drawn by people. The UPA MPs demanded to know whether these two NDA leaders were George Fernandes and Murli Manohar Joshi as a matter of their right to information.

The government had promulgated an Ordinance to recvover Rs 803 crore from ITC in January despite having lost the case in SC. Chidambaram, during his reply to the Finance Bill yesterday said if he had not done so, the government would have to refund Rs 350 crore to ITC paid by them in 1999 against this disputed amount.

He said that when the Ordinance was promulgated, ITC came to the negotiating table and agreed not to ask for the refund of Rs 350 crore while the government dropped the demand for the remaining money.

While Speaker Somnath Chatterjee made it clear that he could not compel the government to do so, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav offered to bring the demand of the members to the FM’s notice.