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Crucial for us to pursue reforms in financial sector: Pranab Mukherjee | Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said that it is crucial for the country to pursue reforms including in the financial sector, to make the economy more competitive and the economic regulatory and oversight system more efficient and ever sensitive
to new developments. Addressing the two-day Annual Economic Editors' Conference
in the National Media Centre in the national capital, Mukherjee said that the
recent spurt in growth has come about due to the significant increase in the growth
of private investment, it is important to address issues that are holding back
the revival of private investment in the economy. “We have begun to address some
of the issues in this context as you would have noted from the RBI’s quarterly
policy review. The efforts on fiscal consolidation and debt management and the
mobilization of additional resources through disinvestment proceeds should help
in this regard,” Mukherjee said. “We are also looking quite closely at steps to
help curtail non-Plan expenditure, especially subsidies on fertilizer and petroleum
products,” he added. The minister further said that the scarcity of public resources
underlines the importance of making effective use of resources. “Special attention
is being paid to expenditure management with an emphasis on not just quantum,
but quality of spending. On October 29, various Ministries through their Financial
Advisers have been asked to cut down non-Plan expenditure, but ensure full and
proper utilization of the Plan expenditure,” Mukherjee said. “Similar advice has
also been given to the State Governments and UTs through their Finance Secretaries
on October 28,” he added. He also said that both the Central and the State Governments
need to focus on the issue, while efforts are underway to push Public Private
Partnership mechanism, in the short and medium term, to new areas of economic
and social infrastructure including health and education. “Indeed, given the lags
in the economy between specific actions and desired outcomes, it is important
to initiate institutional reform measures in right earnest and set milestones
for ourselves over the next five years. The release of the draft Direct Tax Code
for discussion recently in one such step that we have taken,” Mukherjee said.
“As substantial resources, both public and private, are mobilized to fuel the
growth of the economy and make it more inclusive in character, there is a legitimate
concern that every bit of the public effort should count and yield better results,”
he added. |
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