BJP finds reason for rising inflation in Budget

The Bharatiya Janata Party today expressed concern over the rising rate of inflation in the country and its effect on the common man. According to BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government after having "used" the "plight" of the common man to come back to power, has subsequently abandoned it.

"Inflation is up, coal prices are up by 16 per cent, steel prices have also gone up, due to which LPG cylinder prices will also go up, sugar prices have gone up, eggs, too, have become expensive, in fact the only thing that seems to have gone down is the price of groundnut oil, which is not commonly used," he said.

Party General Secretary Arun Jaitley also commented on the rising inflation rate, holding the UPA government's "inflationary fiscal policies" responsible for the highest inflation rate in three years.

"I hold the across- the- board cess imposed by the new Budget to be primarily responsible for the inflationary trend," he said.

"This was a high taxation Budget in a post-liberalised economy era, the rising excise duty, service tax, and rising fuel prices have brought the inflation rate back to license-permit raj era," he said.

He added that raising the excise duty on steel from 8 per cent to 12 per cent has had a "spiralling effect" on prices of other commodities.

"The National Democratic Alliance government had frozen the rate of excise duty on steel to 8 per cent till July 2004, for justifiable reasons, the new government raised the duty to 12 per cent without bothering to go into the reasons for the previous tax regime," he said.

"This rise in steel prices will have a huge impact on the cost of various essential commodities," he said.

The BJP has already launched a campaign against the Budget and will be using the rising inflation a campaign issue against the new government. Public meetings and rallies have been planned till August 16, when Parliament reconvenes for the second part of the Budget session.

According to Naidu, "the government has been too busy setting up committees to co-ordinate between its various allies, which has resulted in such disastrous economic polices."