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The Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, along with the RBI Governor, Dr Bimal Jalan, and the Finance Secretary, Dr S. Narayan, at the RBI board meeting in the Capital on Saturday.

NEW DELHI, March 15

THE Union Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, today re-emphasised that the focus of Budget 2003-04 was on infrastructure development and other sectors such as textiles, tourism and pharmaceuticals that would provide "quick returns" for a higher GDP growth and employment.

Speaking to newspersons after his customary post-Budget meeting with the Reserve Bank board, Mr Singh said, ``We discussed the economy and the Budget. The (growth) figures will come by and by as the year progresses."

``The Budget focussed on the sectors like infrastructure, textiles, tourism, pharma and other knowledge-based sectors as it would provide quick returns for growth of the economy and employment,'' he said in his address to the members of the RBI board.

While acknowledging the existing fiscal constraints, Mr Singh emphasised the private-public partnership in infrastructure that, by leveraging public funds of Rs 2,000 crore, would catalyse much larger investment in that sector to benefit all aspects of economic activity. He also highlighted the need for reforms in agriculture through technology revolution.

The Finance Minister also dwelt on the rigidity in expenditure structure where debt service repayments, essential defence expenditures and subsidies accounted for a large portion of the available resources. Hence the focus on reduction in interest payments through the prepayment of external debt, restructuring of state debt and restructuring of some financial institutions.

On the revenue front, Mr Singh said that measures have been proposed on simplification of tax administration.

``Tax revenues must be mobilised in a green channel system based on trust rather than mistrust,'' Mr Singh said. The Government has adopted 90 per cent of the suggestions made by the Kelkar Task Force on improving tax administration.

In his welcome address, the RBI Governor, Dr Bimal Jalan, said the Budget provided the necessary impetus to growth backed by strong fundamentals. The macro-economic circumstances in the country with low inflation of four per cent and high foreign exchange reserves of nearly $74 billion indicated that the potential for growth was high. "The Budget will contribute to it," he said.

However, Dr Jalan said there was a need to improve efficiency in order to ensure higher GDP growth. He declined to give any growth projection but said, "we will revise it in the April Credit Policy." The RBI projected a 5.0-5.5 per cent growth in GDP for this fiscal as against the CSO estimate of 4.4 per cent.

The economy, Dr Jalan said, was strong enough to take care of any eventuality arising out of adverse international developments. "Assuming normal monsoon in 2003-04, circumstances were propitious for a substantial increase in growth rate," he said.

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Jaswant pins hopes on `quick returns' sectors

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