Even as it may have disappointed some of his ministerial colleagues who were part of the important panel, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has rendered non-functional the important Cabinet Committee on Prices (CCP) after realising that its powers overlapped with those of another crucial sub-commitee, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
The 10-member CCP was formed through an official notification almost immediately after UPA II came to power with union ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar, P Chidambaram, Murli Deora, Mamata Banerjee, Ambika Soni, MK Azhagiri, BK Handique and Anand Sharma as its members.
However, three months down the line and when the government has been battling to control rising prices, the committee has not met even once. The panel had been mandated to take appropriate corrective measures to control prices while assessing internal availability of essential and agricultural commodities.
While conceding that such a committee did exist, PMO sources on Monday, however, clarified that the probable reason why it had failed to meet was due to the CCEA taking all critical decisions relating to pricing. ?As per convention, the CCEA has been the sub-committee that has always taken decisions on prices, whether it is about food grains or that or steel and other items,? a government functionary said. ?Possibly, it was realised that having another sub-panel would only mean taking away the powers of the CCEA,? he added. It was also likely that the government wanted to avoid signalling that it was in ?panic mode?, calling meetings of the CCP only when prices of food grains shot up.
Although the UPA managers refused to come on record on the issue, they also pointed out that the experience in the previous government of having a CCP had not been an encouraging one. ?In UPA I, the committee on prices met a few times but decision-making hit hurdles everytime because alliance leaders, who were part of the committee, attempted to swing the decision as per their own regional sensitivities,? a senior leader said.
?It is best that the the CCEA tackle issues relating to pricing,? he said, adding that the sub-committee had taken several decisions in the last few weeks to bring down prices. Last week, the CCEA had raised MSP of paddy from Rs 850 to Rs 1000 per quintal besides also increasing MSP of pulses significantly.