Next Budget will be forward-looking: PM

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 2. The Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, today assured industry that steps would be taken to soften the impact of the withdrawal of quantitative restrictions even as he committed himself to making the next Budget ``forward-looking'' to achieve a target of eight per cent GDP growth. Expressing concern over sluggishness in the industrial sector, he said, ``It is evident we need fresh growth impetus.''

At the third meeting of the Prime Minister's reconstituted Trade and Industry Advisory Council, he warned that soft reform options were now over. ``Further measures entail difficult decisions by Central and State Governments.'' But these required a broad political consensus and therefore, he urged the corporate chiefs to play a constructive role in this.

Mr. Vajpayee sought to reassure the industry about measures being taken to prevent dumping and stressed that it must also adapt itself to competition. ``An over-protectionist approach will foster inefficiency. It will lead to stagnation.''

Industrial revival was of critical importance and was therefore topmost on the meeting's agenda. He felt investment needed to be stepped up in the coming months to reverse negative trends in industrial growth.

In this context, he said industrial output had risen by only 5.5 per cent; the services sector had also recorded a slowdown. Similarly, data on capital goods production and imports pointed to continued sluggishness in investment activity.

After the two-hour long meeting, the Secretary, Prime Minister's Office, Mr. N.K. Singh, said Mr. Vajpayee assured industrialists that the Government would look into their complaint over smuggled and counterfeit goods flooding the country.

He said Mr. Vajpayee made it clear that the Government would undertake everything possible to accelerate growth, especially by finalising contracts for infrastructure development through release of funds from India Millennium Deposits (IMD) and World Bank funds.

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