Rollback not possible: Pranab

Sticking to his Budget decision to hike fuel prices,Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday rejected the Opposition demand for a partial rollback of duties on diesel....

Sticking to his Budget decision to hike fuel prices,Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday rejected the Opposition demand for a partial rollback of duties on diesel saying the governments financial condition did not permit it. Mukherjee made the assertion while replying to a two-day discussion on the Budget following which the entire Opposition staged a walkout in protest.

I would love to respond to the demands,but my financial condition does not permit me to do so. So please excuse me, he replied to BJP leader Yashwant Sinha,who initiated the debate on behalf of the Opposition. Demanding a rollback of the duty,at least on diesel,Sinha said if the dangerous proposal was not withdrawn it would lead to cascading effect on prices.

Mukherjee said he had not imposed any new tax,pointing out that the duties on fuel were those that were in vogue earlier. I have only reimposed the duties as a prelude to the stimulus package that I announced. He,however,conceded that some components of the Budget would have an impact on inflation,but these were steps that would ensure the least inflation in the time to come. There is no carpet under which I can sweep it. Inflation is not detachable. It is part of the economy,we have to deal with it. One cannot take a myopic view, he said.

In a point-by-point rebuttal of the charges against the UPA government,Mukherjee said the government had given legally backed Rights of Entitlement to the common man. Right to know,right for a Job,right to education and soon,right to Food. But these are not mere announcements. They have to be planned and funds have to be allocated, he said,challenging the Opposition to show any previous Budget where an allocation of Rs 1.30 lakh crore had been made on the social sector or Rs 1,74 crore on infrastructure. Rejecting the criticism that only a modest hike of Rs 1,000 crore had been made in NREGA,he said the provision was made based on requirement given by the ministry concerned.

Retorting to the Opposition contention that the Budget fell short of expectation,he gave comparative figures of six years of NDA rule with that of the UPAs tenure and the latter fared better on all parameters. Sinha questioned Mukherjee on managing the fiscal deficit,but the latter retorted by saying that neither India nor the world had faced a crisis of grave economic depression since 1929.