FM eyes Insurance Bill clearance in Parliament

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that the current inflation is driven by crude and oil prices reports CNBC-TV18 quoting Newswire 18. Chidambaram said that he would try to clear the Insurance Bill in the parliament, the report said. The FM feels that the government would be comfortable in securing majority on many of the pending Bills.

Excerpts from P Chidambaram's speech in a Press Conference:

On Inflation:

Fortunately we are insulated against the World Food Price inflation because the last harvest of wheat and paddy has been very good and procurement has been very good. But we are victims of inflation driven by crude oil prices and commodity prices. Yesterday Prime Minister in his reply referred to it as imported inflation. Anything that is imported adds to our inflation, the answer is to take monetary measures; monetary measures work over a period of time. There is nothing new that I can add every week. All I can say is monetary measures will take effect and inflation will moderate over a period of time.

On Reforms in Insurance Sector:

The Insurance Bill is one of many Bills that are pending. It is an important Bill; it is a comprehensive amendment to the insurance laws. One clause was objected to by the Left parties namely the clause which takes FDI from 26% to 49%. In respect of other clauses I do not think anyone has a serious objection. We will have to now take stock of the situation, reach out to parties, which may have voted against us yesterday on the nuclear agreement or who maybe willing to support us on economic reforms. So we will have to reach out to other parties in parliament, try to build on the majority that we have demonstrated yesterday and try to pass these bills. I am confident that, we can secure a comfortable majority for many of these bills if we talk to the other parties and that is what I intend to do.

On Elections:

We have repeatedly said that elections will take place when scheduled - that will be in the month of April-May.