Bjp Sets Up Panel On Economic Affairs

The BJP has set up a legislative affairs committee on economic affairs to articulate the partys stand on the United Front governments economic proposals that are likely to come up during this Parliament session.

Former minister of state for finance Satish Agarwal is the convenor of the committee which is to have two former Union finance ministers, Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha, as members.

Satish Agarwal said he had co-opted party treasurer Ved Prakash Goyal, Rajya Sabha member T N Chaturvedi, and S C Jha, R Ramakrishnan, Md Fazal and Justice G M Lodha as the other members of the committee. The committee was scheduled to hold its first meeting yesterday.

The Essential Commodities Act, the Foreign Exchange Maintenance Act, the Income Tax Act and the Companies Act are already listed in the committees agenda, party spokesperson Yashwant Sinha said.

The partys national executive meeting set up the committee on Saturday but the decision was announced yesterday. Senior party leaders reportedly concluded that the BJP must present one voice in Parliament on various economic issues.