The minister also expressed the hope that the Reserve Bank would take note of fiscal consolidation initiatives while announcing half-yearly monetary policy review tomorrow.
"As fiscal consolidation takes place and investor confidence increases, it is expected that the economy will return to the path of high investment, higher growth, lower inflation and long-term sustainability," Chidambaram said.
The government, he said, would continue efforts to restrict fiscal deficit in the current financial year at 5.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), lower than 5.8 per cent a year ago.
Although the government had planned to bring down the fiscal deficit to 5.1 per cent in 2012-13, the Vijay Kelkar- panel had said that it could go up to 6.1 per cent in absence of adequate steps to check expenditure and pursue tax reforms.
The fiscal consolidation roadmap, which is based on the recommendations of the Kelkar Committee, seeks to bring down the fiscal deficit to 4.8 per cent in 2013-14, reducing it gradually to 3 per cent by 2016-17.
On the possibility of RBI cutting rates in its policy review tomorrow, Chidambaram said: "I am making the statement so that everybody acknowledges the steps which we are taking. And also acknowledges the government is determined to bring about fiscal consolidation. And I sincerely hope that everybody will read the statement and take note of that".
Chidambaram exuded confidence that government would be able to raise Rs 30,000 crore from disinvestment and Rs 40,000 crore from sale of spectrum. (MORE)