Parliament passes Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act

New Delhi, Nov 28 (UNI) The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, deleting from and adding certain commodities in the list of essential commodities, today received parliamentary approval after it was passed by a voice vote in the Lok Sabha.

Replying to the debate on the Bill, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said certain commodities like cotton, iron and steel and automobile spare parts were being removed from the list of Essential Commodities as there was no shortage of these items in the country.

Moreover India had become a major hub for automobiles and their spareparts.

The Bill would help the automobile sector to expand to world market, he said.

Similarly, since the country had enough cotton production this year the legislation would boost cotton exports.

The Bill however included drugs, fertilizers, petroleum products, jute and jute products and seeds of various fruits and vegetables in the list of essential commodities.

Mr Pawar said since the government was paying subsidy on fertilizers and was fixing its prices it had been decided to treat it among the essential products.

He said the government would have to explain why a particular item had been included in the list of essential commodities in future. The Bill had been passed by the Rajya Sabha in the Monsoon Session.

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