‘Tried to strike a balance’
Inflation and growth being the twin challenge he faced while preparing the Budget for the year 2011-12, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said he tried his best to balance the two, while giving push to economic reforms.
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament after presenting his third Budget in UPA-2, Mr Mukherjee said, “I had to place the Budget in a situation where there is uncertainty in the international world (and) high food inflation — though in terms of percentage it has come down from 20.2 to 9.3 — but still it is unacceptable level.”
Claiming that he desisted from making any “dramatic announcement”, he said through the Budget proposals, he tried to signal reforms: “I wanted to convey a strong signal towards reforms ... reforms not in dramatic announcements but (by) addressing those issues (which can improve) governance and delivery.” Recognising that the current spurt in prices of food and other essential items is due to supply side constraint, the finance minister said the solution did not lie in controlling it in a way which could hurt growth. “So I tried to address the problem by allocating resources and come out with schemes to augment supplies of pulses and edible oil,” he added.
To check high prices, he said, “We have taken special programmes — about six-seven programmes — to be implemented under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna. I have allocated resources and schemes are being worked out for pulses, edible oil, providing fodder for the cattle, green revolution in eastern India. We have to remove the supply bottlenecks and therefore the agriculture response should be to improve the supply bottlenecks.”
The Budget, he said, also sought to move ahead on the path of fiscal prudence by controlling expenditure and reducing fiscal deficit. “I have conveyed the message in this Budget that we shall have to resort to fiscal prudence and fiscal consolidation should take place,” he added.
On implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the minister said, “It would be possible (to implement it) with the cooperation of my colleagues in the states. We would be able to move towards GST.”
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