CPM opposes FDI in multi-brand retail
NEW DELHI — The CPM yesterday came out strongly against opening up the FDI in multi-brand retail as well as upping foreign direct investment (FDI) limits in banking and insurance sectors.
The party said it opposed "the moves to push through more neo-liberal measures", saying it were these measures, and not the lack of them, which had led to the present grim nancial situation.
"The (party asks) all opposition parties to oppose legislations which seek to increase the FDI limit in banking and insurance sectors and (also) the Pension Bill, which is meant to privatise pension funds," it said in a statement.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist pointed out that GDP growth rate had declined to 6.5 per cent in 2011-12 and there was a slowdown in industrial production.
The trade de cit was widening in the backdrop of slowdown in exports. The Indian rupee had depreciated to over Rs 55 a dollar. There was a sharp increase in external debt.
"The ruling establishment and the corporate media are portraying this deterioration as a failure to push through neoliberal reforms. This is a trav- esty of facts," it said.
"On the contrary, like in the rest of the world, the worsening economic situation in India is a direct outcome of the pursuit of neo-liberal policies."
The CPM reiterated its opposition to the steep petrol price hike.
It said the reduction of the price by Rs 2 per litre "is totally inadequate since it is still higher by over Rs 5.50 a litre". It called for "a full rollback of the petrol price increase".
CPM also asked the government to release excess food grain stored in central pool for sale at subsidised rates to the poor. “The total stock of foodgrains in central pool has reached 7.11 crore tonnes in May,” it said in a statement. “This is 5 crore tonnes in excess of the buffer stock norm.
“Much of these stocks are also rotting in the absence of adequate warehousing space. Yet the government refuses to of oad these stocks of wheat and rice at cheap prices to the poor and malnourished.
The CPM asked the central government to release these food stocks at Below Poverty Line (BPL) prices through the PDS and under special schemes for the drought-affected areas and to the poor and the destitute.
The statement also called for a through investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the allocation of coal blocks, which the Comptroller and Auditor General has found faulty.
"This has resulted in huge pro ts for the private parties and massive loss of revenue to the government," a party statement said.