The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce had its first meeting since the appointment of Congress lawmaker Abhishek Manu Singhvi as chairman on Monday, discussing a variety of problems that would be addressed by the panel in the next year.
Singhvi urged that the committee look at the rupee’s depreciation versus the dollar and its impact on trade and commerce. Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Parliament argued that the suggestion to discuss the weakening rupee was absurd because it was a dynamic situation with a historical legacy, and if the value of the rupee appreciated in the near future, the entire exercise undertaken by the committee would be futile.
Opposition MPs said that it was an important subject that needed to be examined since the impact on small merchants and enterprises needed to be assessed.
Other ideas for the committee’s agenda were international trade and commerce policy, including tariff and non-tariff obstacles, trade remedies and safeguard measures, and the activities of international trade agencies.
According to sources, the panel examined international commodity agreements other than those dealing to wheat, sugar, jute, and cotton, international customs tariffs, activity connected to the Tariff Commission, and India Trade Promotion Organization.
Priyanka Chaturvedi of the Shiv Sena, Jayant Chaudhary of the RLD, Raju Bista of the BJP, Nishikant Dubey of the TRS, and Nama Nageswara Rao of the TRS were among the MPs who attended the meeting.
