PM for political consensus on fiscal reforms

The basic thrust continues to be on self-reliance with high growth, low inflation.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today sought a "national political consensus" on the issue of bridging the growing fiscal deficit, instead of trying out various unpopular austerity measures.

He was replying to a debate on the motion of thanks to President APJ Abdul Kalam's address in the Lok Sabha.

The suggestion of reducing the fiscal deficit seems to be a follow up of a pre-Budget meeting the prime minister and Finance Minister P Chidambaram had with National Democratic Alliance leaders over the 12th Finance Commission's report.

The prime minister said while changes had been made in the country's economic policies, the basic thrust continued to be on self-reliance with high growth, removal of unemployment and low inflation.

"It is insensitive to say we cannot live in the past. We have made changes but the basic thrust of our economic policy remains self-reliance and progress towards a humane society with efforts to steer the country towards a high growth path of 7 per cent," he said.

He said he was happy that inflation had been controlled and was below 5 per cent despite a sharp increase in the global prices of petroleum products. Singh said employment generation and removal of poverty were the cornerstones of his government's economic policy. He said there was a clear revival of investment in the country.

The prime minister staunchly defended the government's image in the face of an onslaught by leader of the Opposition LK Advani.

When Advani accused him of being "invisible" he replied that the government's visibility was contingent upon its conduct."Whenever I find that people in this country are in distress, I and Soniaji (UPA chairperson) have been there," he said.

He refuted the Opposition's allegation that the Bharat Nirman programme was just a slogan since there were no clear outlays for it.

"The Bharat Nirman programme is about outcomes and not outlays. We have enhanced outlays for all sectors pertaining to rural infrastructure development," he said.

Singhspeak

• Singh wants a "national political consensus" on bridging the fiscal deficit, instead of trying out austerity measures
• The suggestion seems to be a follow up of a meeting Singh had with NDA leaders over the 12th Finance Commission's report
• The PM said while changes had been made in the economic policies, the basic thrust continued to be on self-reliance