-The Tribune The prices of essential food items have increased by 50% in seven years, whereas the real wage rate has risen by 22%. These figures show that inflation has outsmarted the real income of the poor, making their lives miserable as the food basket constitutes a substantial proportion of the total expenditure on the poor. The net effect is that the poor earn less and take loans to maintain the...

-The Hindu Business Line Rather than cut fuel prices, encouraging farmers to step up cultivation of oilseeds and raising LPG subsidy and vegetables will ease food inflation  It is true that a reduction in the prices of petro products will result in a modest fall in the prices of various commodities. However, the reduction in petro prices will happen only when both Central and State governments forgo a substantial portion of the...

-The Hindu What is the Opposition-ruled States’ stand on reduction of value added tax to bring down petrol prices?  The story so far: Petrol is retailing at more than ₹100 per litre across India. While rising Crude oil prices have added to the burden, the primary reason behind the steep increase in pump fuel prices over the last few years is the gradually rising Central Government's excise duty component. Currently, for every...

-Newsclick.in The central government has raked in over Rs18 lakh crore from excise duties compared to Rs14 lakh crore from taxes by all state governments over the past eight years. Yet again, the government has tried to obfuscate the exorbitant petrol/diesel prices by blaming state governments. This time, it was the Prime Minister himself who blamed some Opposition-ruled states for not reducing taxes like the Value Added Tax (VAT) after the central...

-Hindustan Times India is the world's biggest importer of palm oil and relies on Indonesia for nearly half of the 700,000 tonnes it takes every month. Indonesia President Joko Widodo's drastic measures to control food prices by banning palm oil exports have come into effect from Thursday. India is the world's biggest importer of palm oil and relies on Indonesia for nearly half of the 700,000 tonnes it takes every month. Palm...