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February 03, 2004
India shining...FM raises FY04
GDP
After much acrimony and
pandemonium in parliament over certain technical issues, the
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Tuesday presented the seventh
consecutive budget of the NDA Government. However, it was an
Interim Budget for the fiscal year 2004-05 as the BJP-led coalition
at the Centre has sought to go for an early general
election.
This was the 11th
Interim Budget in the history of independent India and the one was
clearly aimed at garnering as many votes as possible in the
upcoming polls. That is not to say that the budget did not have any
proposals worth mentioning.
Presenting the Interim
Budget for 2004-05, the Finance Minister reiterated the
Government’s responsibility to encourage the economy which was
set on the path of accelerated growth.
Pointing to India's
emergence as a major global economic power, Singh said that the GDP
growth in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2004 would be between
7.5-8%. He also reiterated the earlier inflation projection of
4-4.5% for the fiscal year 2003-04.
"Economic growth
indices, in the current year, are very encouraging. With inflation
at 4-4.5%, this year we expect the growth rate of our GDP to be
between 7.5-8%. Though, there are higher growth estimates that have
been made, for the present, we prefer to remain with the cited
figures. This level of growth is a matter of great satisfaction,"
Singh said.
He also said that
country’s macro-economic situation was better than it had ever
been in the last fifty years. "Internationally, too, there is now
much greater, and a much more widespread recognition that India is
progressing in all spheres of national endeavour," Singh
said.
Drawing attention to
the foreign exchange reserves of more than US$100bn, the Finance
Minister stated that for greater openness and to share necessary
information with citizens, the first ever report of the RBI, on
Foreign Exchange Reserves is being released today.
Singh said that the
Government was committed to second green revolution, employment
generation, eradication of poverty and fiscal consolidation. The
objective of enhancing job opportunities would be pursued
vigorously, he said.
Bold initiatives in
infrastructure have already generated several layers of immediate
employment, simultaneously laying the foundation for additional
quality employment across a broad spectrum of economic activity,
the Finance Minister said.
A combination of
moderate inflation, declining interest rates, and healthy capital
markets has set our economy on the path of accelerated growth,
Singh said.
The Finance Minister
said that during his tenure of about a year and a half as the
country's Finance Minister, the Indian economy had entered a
sustained and robust growth path of around 7.5-8% per
year.
Despite multiple
challenges, the NDA Government brought down the fiscal deficit to
4.8% of GDP, the revenue deficit to 3.6%, and contained annual
average inflation at around 4.8%, he said.
"Our revenue collection
between 1998-2004, has gone up by about 83%, our capital markets
are healthy, the UTI is a market leader again, our foreign exchange
reserves have nearly quadrupled to the never ever achieved level of
over US$100bn, our GDP, in this period, has increased by almost
40%, and to my belief, national contentment, national confidence,
and our collective resolve for achieving even higher growth has now
taken firm root, Singh said.
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