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FM hints at soft budget, says GDP growth to be explosive
New Delhi, Nov 23: Amidst prospects of robust economic growth this year, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh today hinted at a soft and growth-oriented budget that would improve quality of life through reforms and ensure food security to the masses.
New Delhi, Nov 23: Amidst prospects of robust
economic growth this year, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh
today hinted at a soft and growth-oriented budget that would
improve quality of life through reforms and ensure food
security to the masses.
Promising to keep price level low with a benign inflation
of less than 4.0 per cent, Singh said the attempt would be to
increase the spending power of the people while assisting the
poor through food subsidies.
"I want countrymen to go and spend. The more they spend, the greater will be the production and income," he said referring to the multiplier effect on GDP growth through higher demand.
He stressed on reforms as it was the "route" to attain higher growth of 6-7 per cent in this decade or even higher.
"The Indian economy is fast approaching a point of criticality. I do not know when it will happen but it will happen very soon. When it happens, growth in India will be explosive," he said.
Singh, however, identified fiscal deficit as a area of concern which continued to "worry" him. But last fiscal the deficit was arrested from its ascending trend and this effort would continue.
Admitting that there was some set back to reforms especially in disinvestment after the supreme court judgement on HPCL and BPCL, he said such things do happen in democracy but government was committed to the sell-off process and move away from those public sector enterprises which were a "drag" on the economy.
Bureau Report
"I want countrymen to go and spend. The more they spend, the greater will be the production and income," he said referring to the multiplier effect on GDP growth through higher demand.
He stressed on reforms as it was the "route" to attain higher growth of 6-7 per cent in this decade or even higher.
"The Indian economy is fast approaching a point of criticality. I do not know when it will happen but it will happen very soon. When it happens, growth in India will be explosive," he said.
Singh, however, identified fiscal deficit as a area of concern which continued to "worry" him. But last fiscal the deficit was arrested from its ascending trend and this effort would continue.
Admitting that there was some set back to reforms especially in disinvestment after the supreme court judgement on HPCL and BPCL, he said such things do happen in democracy but government was committed to the sell-off process and move away from those public sector enterprises which were a "drag" on the economy.
Bureau Report