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: Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh wrote a letter to the Parliamentary panel expressing his apprehension on the Micro Finance Bill. According to him, the Bill could stunt the growth of the small lending institutions. The minister of state has been making public his dissent on other policies of the UPA government too. While speaking to Self Help Groups (SHGs) which came under the Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development he explained that there were many lacunae in the Bill and the government should make the market mechanism work which could by itself regulate the sector. There are about 800 micro-finance institutions operating in India in various forms -- trusts, societies, cooperatives and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs). The Bill was introduced by Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram to control small micro-credit institutions through the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) while requiring them to meet stringent accounting standards. Earlier, Ramesh had written to the prime minister to express his disapproval of the Commerce Ministry's proposal which was approved by his senior colleague Kamal Nath to reduce customs duties on agriculture products under FTA with ASEAN. Ramesh had criticised various attempts made by the Congress to take away the freedom given to the self help groups and cooperative societies under the Mutually Aided Cooperatives Societies Act (MACS). This Act was first introduced in Andhra Pradesh by Telugu Desam founder and former Chief Minister N T Ramarao.
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