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Budget will provide for quick returns: Jaswant Singh

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 15. The Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, today stressed that the budget would provide for "quick returns'' for growth of the economy and employment.

Addressing the board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), he said the budget focussed on sectors such as infrastructure, textiles, tourism, pharma and other knowledge-based industries as these would provide such quick returns for economic growth and employment creation.

Speaking to newspersons after the customary post-budget meeting with the RBI Board, he said the economy and the budget had been discussed. As for growth figures, he said they would come as the year progressed.

On the growth aspect, the RBI Governor, Bimal Jalan, said the budget provided the necessary impetus to growth backed by strong fundamentals. He pointed to the macro economic circumstances with the country having a low inflation of four per cent and high forex reserves of nearly $74 billions indicating that the potential for growth was high. Mr. Jalan felt the budget would contribute to this position.

At the same time, he felt the need to improve efficiency in order to ensure higher GDP growth. He did not indicate any specific growth target but said that it would be revised in the April credit policy. The RBI projected a 5 to 5.5 per cent growth in GDP for this fiscal as against the CSO estimate of 4.4 per cent.

On inflation, he said it was expected to fall from over 4 per cent to a reasonably low level in case the war clouds disappear and there was a good monsoon in the next fiscal. Currently, the inflation based on the wholesale price index is about 4.9 per cent, considerably higher than the 1.95 per cent recorded last year.

But Mr. Jalan said the general inflation rate was about 3 per cent except in the case of drought-related commodities and petroleum products.

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