Mumbai: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday strongly objected to the opposition's allegation of BJP using central agencies against political opponents. She was in Mumbai to chair the first Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) meeting post her presentation of the Budget. The Finance Minister is on a two day visit to the financial capital.
Sitharaman said that the ED acts only when an offense has been created or registered somewhere, and if there is a case made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. She also went about explaining how the ED, which comes under the Ministry of Finance, goes about its work as a law enforcement agency.
"Assume that we are using the investigative agencies against the opposition, here all three have come together and are making public statements. What is the use of the pressure? There is no pressure being applied. If you want to meet, please do so," she explained. "Even if ED wishes to do something for political or any other (reasons), it is just not possible. Unless you have the material before you which is substantive enough (to act) and ED, mind you, cannot go there first. It's a law enforcing agency which deals with predicate offense, which means there is an offense somewhere that is acted upon, post that there is an offense created which is coming under the PMLA realm and then the ED goes in there. Even if I wish, it (investigation) just cannot happen. But, even if I wish, if there is an offense there, I can't stop it either," she added.
"Every party has the right in a democracy to meet and build alliances. But don't speak about pressure. You meet and definitely talk. If we assume that the pressure is indeed being applied, you are still talking? Which means what is the use of the pressure. This is a baseless allegation, I am saying again and again," the FM said.
The Opposition has been protesting over the abuse of central agencies by the government alleging that there is a pattern of political adversaries being targeted by these arms of the central government. The Finance Minister also chaired the FSDC meeting in the financial capital at the backdrop of global geopolitical tensions over Russian troop buildup around Ukraine and the United Nations Security Council meeting over the issue on the same day.
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The FSDC deliberated on the challenges emanating from global and domestic developments and asked the regulators to maintain constant vigil on the financial sector. It discussed discussed measures required for further development of the financial sector and to achieve an inclusive economic growth with macroeconomic stability.
"The Council deliberated on the various mandates of the FSDC and major macro-financial challenges arising in view of global and domestic developments. The Council noted that the government and all regulators need to maintain constant vigil on the financial conditions and functioning of important financial institutions, especially considering that it could expose financial vulnerabilities in the medium and long-term," the finance ministry said in a statement.
The meeting was attended by various financial sector regulators, including RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, Finance Secretary T V Somanathan, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj, Financial Services Secretary Sanjay Malhotra, and Securities and Exchange Board of India chairman Ajay Tyagi among others.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, the Finance Minister said that it is difficult to say how the crude prices will react. "Even today, in the FSDC, when we were looking at the challenges which are posed for the financial stability, crude was one of the things. International worrisome situations where we actually voiced that we want a diplomatic solution for the situation that is developing in Ukraine... all these are headwinds", Sitharaman said. She added that the Brent has touched over USD 96 per barrel on Tuesday and the country is keeping a watch on the same. The oil marketing companies will take a call on the retail prices, she added. Trade has not been impacted because of the geopolitical tensions but the government is keeping a close watch on the same, Sitharaman mentioned.
Talking about the timeline for the LIC IPO, Sitharaman said there is a buzz and interest in the market after LIC filed its papers with SEBI and the government will be going ahead with it. The government is also looking into the lapses that happened at the NSE, she mentioned. The Financial Stability and Development Council has been set up by the government in consultation with financial market regulators, to strengthen and institutionalize the mechanism for maintaining financial stability, enhance inter-regulatory coordination and promote financial sector development.
(With agency inputs)
