At the same time, he dubbed as “very good” the returns for investors since the UPA government came to power. “This market is still giving good returns for anyone who invested in July 2004. The market is still giving very good returns,” he said.

Crude oil prices

Stating that political instability is always bad for the stock market, Mr Chidambaram told PTI that bourses cannot be insulated from the developments in other markets either, as is the case with the trends being witnessed in current scenario.

Commenting on the recent trends on Indian bourses that has seen the benchmark Sensex on the Bombay Stock Exchange falling from 21,000 level in January this year to near 13,000-point level now, the Finance Minister said, “Everything has to be looked at in the context. Terms of trade, thanks to oil and commodity, have worsened in India. He said, “The regulator and government is concerned about the orderly movement only. If it (market) moves up or down why should the government take a view on that?”

On complaints of price rigging by certain corporate and if Sebi has informed the government about it, Chidambaram said, “Sebi will not and should not talk to me. If there is any complaint on market rigging, SEBI will inquire into it.”

Futures trading

The Finance Minister also said the government will take a call on notifying the Commodities Transaction Tax and ruled out imposing a ban on the futures trading of more commodities.  “We will see...At least in the first year, it is not intended to be a great revenue-earning measure. We can take a call on the date,” he answered to a query about delay in notifying Commodities Transaction Tax (CTT) even after Parliament approval.

Asked whether ban on futures trading would help in containing food prices, the Finance Minister said, “According to the expert committee, there is no connection between banning forward trading and prices.” “Regardless of the expert’s view, we have banned forward trading. You can call that wise economic decision or a wise political decision, we have taken that decision. But expert says there is no causal connection between one and the other,” he said.

On the issue of CTT he said, like Securities Transaction Tax (STT), Commodities Transaction Tax was intended to bring some order and reduce volatility in the markets.

Asked if the government plans to ban more commodities, Mr Chidambaram said, “There is nothing more to ban.” 

‘NO TAX SOPS FOR BIG CARS’ 

New Delhi, pti: Dashing hopes of big car-makers for an excise duty at par with small cars, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has ruled out extending tax concessions to larger vehicles.
He also said there was no scope for reducing duties on imported hybrid vehicles, although government could consider giving more tax incentives if they were manufactured in India.
“We are not giving any tax concessions to big cars because they are fuel in-efficient compared to the small car,” Mr Chidambaram told PTI in an interview.
He said the incentives to the small cars were given on the ground that “they are fuel efficient”.
The government has been gradually decreasing excise duty on small cars as part of plans to make India a global manufacturing hub.
In 2006 the Finance Minister had cut excise on small cars to 16 per cent from 24 per cent and this year’s Budget had brought it down further to 12 per cent.