New Delhi : India will have to reduce its import bill and become a domestic centric economy. Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said this at the Budget Aajtak Business Roundtable – a one-day pre-budget event organised by the India Today group in Delhi.

Quizzed about the case of corporate espionage unearthed recently, Pradhan said the investigative agencies were working on it. “No one, no matter how powerful, is above the law,” added Pradhan. Speaking about the falling international rates of crude oil, he said that the situation was still abnormal and was likely to stabilise in a few months’ time. “It suits an economy like ours if the prices remain low,” he added.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Yogendra Yadav countered a statement made by Rural Development Minister Birender Singh earlier in the day that farmers will receive four-times the compensation for land acquired by the government. “But Haryana Government has issued a notification in December changing the rules that reduce the compensation substantially. I have the notification with me and can produce it here,” said Yadav.

Answering to Yadav’s charge, Singh said this was not the case in the Centre’s rules. “I am not just a minister, I am from Haryana and nothing will happen that affects farmers adversely as long as I am there,” he asserted. He had earlier assured that farmers’ interest will be kept in mind whether it is the policy about compensation or resettlement. “Multi-crop land is rarely acquired,” he said.

Singh also said that in order to be a superpower by 2030, India will have to reduce hands from agriculture. “At present 60 per cent of our workforce is involved in farming.”

Speaking about methods for controlling inflation in the rates of agricultural produce, Ram Vilas Paswan, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, said the government had been able to address the issue considerably and the prices were down from what it was in 2013-14. “There may be some rise in price because of season produce,” he added.

Paswan also felt that a Common National Market would help the government control prices as well as ensure good rates for farmers. “We have to give flexibility to farmers to sell their produce in mandis as well as in the open market. We don’t have a Common National Market yet.”

He also added that the Food Security Act will cover maximum number of marginal farmers. “APL and BPL categories will cease to be then.”