New Delhi: Finance Minister Pranab Mukerhjee
on Monday said drought situation is not as alarming as it
initially appeared because the recent rainfall has improved
the farm sector prospects.
"Thanks to late monsoon, the problem (of drought) is not
as alarming as it was visualised in the month of July and
early part of August," he said at a conclave in New Delhi.
With huge stocks of wheat and rice, Mukherjee said, the
country was in a better position to deal with drought and
likely shortfall in foodgrain output on account of drought.
"Despite this drought, why we felt little confident was
because of huge buffer stock which we were having in respect
of foodgrain," Mukherjee said, adding the country`s wheat and
rice stocks are far in excess of buffer norms.
According to Food Ministry data the country has food
grains reserve of 47 million tonnes, enough to meet
requirement of public distribution system for the next 13
months.
Mukherjee said the country will have surplus in wheat and
rice.
He said there will be a surplus of 17.7 million tonnes of
wheat in the marketing season for the foodgrain (April-June,
2010).
"Even if, I exclude 4 million tonnes buffer stocks and
three million tonnes of strategic reserves, then also we will
be left with a surplus of 10.7 million tonnes on April 1,
2010," he said.
Also, the country will have surplus rice of around 14
million tonnes in the season which starts from the next month.
"If, I exclude 5.2 million tonnes of buffer stocks and
2 million tonnes of strategic reserves, then also there would
be around 7 million tonnes surplus," he said.
Mukherjee said he has taken a risk of increasing outlays,
which would raise fiscal deficit to estimated 6.8 per cent of
GDP this fiscal, but he did not have any other alternative at
the time of global financial crisis.
" In that scenario (of economic slowdown), the only
alternative to my mind was... to step up the developmental
outlays by 37 percent from Rs 2.43 lakh crore to Rs 3.25
lakh crore to meet the objective of generating demand in the
rural sector," he said.
Bureau Report
