Left gives ground over airports, EPF

The Left bit the bullet on the EPF interest rate today, leaving it to the trade unions to negotiate with the Finance Minister on the rate hi...

The Left bit the bullet on the EPF interest rate today, leaving it to the trade unions to negotiate with the Finance Minister on the rate hike demand, and were even reconciled to the privatisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports after the Government cited legal wrangles were the process to begin again.

For the record, CPIM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the Government was privatising airports in the name of modernisation, ignoring the claims of the Airports Authority of India AAI, which was both financially and technically equipped to upgrade both airports.

8220;Modernisation is not the same as privatisation,8221; Yechury said after a two hour-long UPA-Left coordination meeting. 8220;We feel the AAI should have been given the contract.8221;

However, the joint statement issued after the meeting passed the baton over to the Government on the issue. Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, 8220;There is an urgency to complete the modernisation of these two airports. With that urgency in mind, it was decided that the Government may take a suitable decision.8221;

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Congress leader Ahmad Patel from the UPA; Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury of the CPIM; A B Bardhan and D Raja of the CPI and Debabrata Biswas of the Forward Bloc.

However, the UPA government appeared not to brush away the Left8217;s proposals on airport modernisation and told Left leaders that these would be put before the empoered group of ministers on airport modernisation. The only hope for the Left8217;s position appeared to be for contradictions within the system to raise sufficient doubts about the modernisation for a fresh look to be required.

But8212;at a meeting where, as one Left leader put it, nothing was clinched by the Left8212;its proposal on resource mobilisation was discussed at length and won some approval from the UPA on the issues of the utilisation of surplus PSU funds, the demand for special dividends from PSUs, the removal of corporate tax exemptions, hiking the capital gains tax and widening the tax base.

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On the collection of tax arrears, the Left was told that their claim of a collection figure of Rs 1,00,000 crore was incorrect as much of this was caught up in litigation and, therefore, blocked. On a tax on luxury cars, as well, the Left was told the collections would be nominal.

There will now be another meeting between Left leaders and the Finance Minister on the issue of resource mobilisation ahead of the Budget session of Parliament.