Chennai, Jul 23: Hitting out at the UPA Government for its recent decision to raise FDI caps in some sectors, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today asserted she would not allow it in plantation sector.
She slammed the FDI hike with an eye on arresting the constant fall of Rupee against the US Dollar, saying “it is a direct reflection of the inept macro economic management of the UPA Government over the past several years”.
“The UPA government appears to be acting at the behest of foreign interests and some external Rating Agencies which are frequently threatening to lower the Sovereign Rating to ‘Junk Status' and thereby cowing down the weak UPA government to bend to its whims and facnies”, she charged in a statement here.
These measures raise a number of serious concerns, far from protecting the interests of workers and common people of the country, Jayalalithaa pointed out while taking a dig on hike in FDI in Telecom Sector from 74 per cent to 100, insurance sector and also in plantation sector from 49 per cent on automatic route and upto 100 per cent with FIPB clearance.
“Tamil Nadu has a large number of small tea growers whose livelihood has to be protected. We cannot allow foreign investment in this sector to tip the scales in favour of the larger plantations and jeopardise small tea growers”, she said.
“The FDI relaxation by the Government is neither an effective nor an appropriate measure to tackle macro-economic imbalances faced by the country”, she said and suggested policy initiatives to promote exports and set right current account imbalances.
“Short sighted policies of increasing FDI caps will not help the Rupee to strengthen. The announcements of this nature are only a knee-jerk reaction to the falling Rupee problem”, she noted.
