 "Govt ready to take difficult decisions to check deficit: FM")
Committing to contain fiscal and current account deficits, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that the government will not hesitate to take difficult decisions to keep them under check.
"The government is committed to the path of fiscal consolidation and has drawn red lines for the two deficits (fiscal and current account). We shall not allow the red lines to be breached under any circumstances, and we shall remain within the red lines. We are prepared to take difficult decisions in this regard, should the need arise," he said.
Chidambaram said this during an intervention at the IMF Committee plenary meeting here yesterday.
The government proposes to bring down fiscal deficit, an indicator of government borrowing, to 4.8 % of the GDP in 2013-14 from 4.9 % a year ago.
As regards the Current Account Deficit (CAD), Chidambaram had earlier said that all efforts would be made to contain it at 3.7 % of the GDP or $70 billion in the current fiscal. The CAD, which is the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign exchange, had touched an all time high of 4.8 % of the GDP or $88.2 billion a year ago.
Admitting that the government policies are directly responsible for the fiscal deficit and current account deficit, Chidambaram said, "necessary measures have ... Been initiated to contain the fiscal deficit and the current account deficit."
Going forward, he said, "the commitment is to bring down the fiscal deficit to 3 percent by 2016-17.
"The government is committed to the path of fiscal consolidation and has drawn red lines for the two deficits (fiscal and current account). We shall not allow the red lines to be breached under any circumstances, and we shall remain within the red lines. We are prepared to take difficult decisions in this regard, should the need arise," he said.
Chidambaram said this during an intervention at the IMF Committee plenary meeting here yesterday.
The government proposes to bring down fiscal deficit, an indicator of government borrowing, to 4.8 % of the GDP in 2013-14 from 4.9 % a year ago.
As regards the Current Account Deficit (CAD), Chidambaram had earlier said that all efforts would be made to contain it at 3.7 % of the GDP or $70 billion in the current fiscal. The CAD, which is the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign exchange, had touched an all time high of 4.8 % of the GDP or $88.2 billion a year ago.
Admitting that the government policies are directly responsible for the fiscal deficit and current account deficit, Chidambaram said, "necessary measures have ... Been initiated to contain the fiscal deficit and the current account deficit."
Going forward, he said, "the commitment is to bring down the fiscal deficit to 3 percent by 2016-17.