Needs of the poor take precedence over commerce
The Finance Minister Mr P. Chidambaram's utterance in Washington last week that he is prepared to sacrifice revenue to tame inflation by fiscal measures and the repetition of the same point during his intervention in the discussion on price rise in the Lok Sabha on April 16, 2008 have unwittingly been used to wrest more import duty cuts. The latest to join the bandwagon is the Petroleum Ministry, which is seeking a scrapping of 5 per cent customs duty on imported crude oil.