I am not indifferent. We are trying to solve supply side difficulties: Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, says “There are supply-side mismatches. There is a group of ministers who look at the issue on almost alternative days to make sure that commodities reach people in time. Tomato prices have crashed to the other end where the farmers are not even getting their input costs back."

What is the government doing to ensure that the prices of goods and services do not go up for the common people?
We are trying to make sure that the supply-side difficulties are handled. I am not indifferent to it. We are making sure that improved supplies reach people and you saw tomato prices have already crashed to the other end where the farmers are not even getting their input costs back.


So, there are supply-side mismatches. There is a group of ministers who look at the issue on almost alternative days to make sure that commodities reach people in time. I stood up in the parliament to answer that for tomatoes, we are procuring from Kolar and some tomato growing areas and importing from Nepal, and Rs 200 subsidy was given even before for all the Ujjwala consumers.

Is that all or do you have some more love to give in the next few weeks?
75 lakh new Ujjwala connections.

That was part of the same announcement. Any more announcements?
Well, we made an announcement. See how it is working out, particularly for perishable commodities, we have made sure that supply side problems are addressed. There is a group of ministers which looks into it in detail. Rice and wheat have been released from the Food Corporation of India godown, so that market prices come down.

Efforts are being made to make sure inflation is contained. For those who wanted a lower rate of income tax, I brought in a second parallel system through which you pay lesser tax and in that, people said standard deduction is not being given and therefore it is still not attractive. I brought that in. So, now, if you are earning approximately Rs 60,000 a month, you do not pay any tax at all. For those earning Rs 7 lakh odd annually, we do not charge any tax. So, reduction of income tax has happened.