BJP ridicules FM's 'patience call' on price rise

New Delhi, Apr 12: The BJP today ridiculed Finance Minister Chidambaram for urging people to keep "patience" on issue of inflation.

"The 'patience call on inflation' given by Mr Chidambaram is yet another verbose exercise without any concrete action plan on the ground, said party spokesman Prakash Javadekar.

The party asserted that the UPA government had failed to control inflation as it did not realise the ''real factors'' behind it.

According to the party, it was the supply constraints rather than demand-push leading to the rise in inflation. The Government had failed to understand it. Moreover, the RBI prescription of raising CRR, Repo Rate, and Reverse Repo rate had resulted in only raising the interest rates and had not altered the supply situation.

The party felt the higher interest rate regime had hit hard the industries with 30 per cent rise in their interest bill over the past one year and it would ultimately affect the country's growth adversely.

The party also warned that the world scenario of wheat was grim and the prices of the commodity were bound to increase. If the Government did not procure enough quantity of wheat and rice for public distribution system it would have to pay high cost for import of the commodities, it said.

UNI