Panel to resolve trukers' strike

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the Left parties ended their meeting on Wednesday, apparently as the best of friends and the government assured the Left parties that everything suggested by them was "under the active consideration of the government".

The most important outcome of the meeting was the decision to form a committee that would try to resolve the truckers' strike.

The Left parties appeared divided in their view of the truckers' strike with some parties siding with the government argument that if booking agents were doing business worth crores of rupees, they must be taxed. It is possible that the good offices of the CPI could be used to negotiate the strike.

Both the Left and the government conceded helplessness in controlling inflation in the face of global inflation, but the Left said they had made suggestions on steps to control it and hoped the government would take them seriously.

The worry, the Left parties were told, was about the price situation caused by the rising international prices of crude, petroleum and steel.

Briefing reporters after a two-and-half-hour-long meeting, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said the government was "considering changing the structure of the duty system that had created certain anomalies," the security issues in the foreign direct investment in telecom ("the government was 'considering' the Left stand, Chidambaram said), Employees Provident Fund for which the rate of interest would be retained at 9.5 per cent, and the setting up of a board of reconstruction for public sector enterprises.

Chidambaram asked the Left to understand his compulsions in handling the truckers' strike (talks were going on and the matter would be resolved soon, he said).

Yechury pointed out that the parliamentary standing committee on labour had also recommended a 9.5 per cent rate of interest on PF deposits. Left leaders were almost certain that the current rate of interest would be retained.

The issue of tax and duty structure reforms occupied some time. The Left contention, as encapsulated in its note, is that with the World Trade Organisation deadlines drawing nearer, the Customs duty would have to be brought down to zero, while excise duties would be increased leading to domestically manufactured goods becoming costlier and imports becoming cheaper. Chidambaram said the government would consider this.