Govt will further liberalize FDI regime in coming months: PM

04 Apr 2013 Evaluate

In a move to perk up the confidence of India Inc. at a time when economic growth is standing at a decade low level of 5% and other macro-economic indicators also not showing any quick recovery, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured that more reform measures will be announced on the foreign direct investment (FDI) front, after liberalizing FDI regime in retail, aviation in September last year.

Singh also promised reforms in the financial sector after carefully considering a report by a Finance Ministry panel whose recommendations included a unified regulator in place of SEBI, PFRDA, IRDA, FMC and ultimately merging even RBI with it. The long awaited Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill will also be considered, which has been recently cleared by the Cabinet.

However, satisfied with the functioning of the newly constituted Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) which was set up to accord fast track regulatory clearances to mega projects, the Prime Minister said he hoped the panel would clear additional 31 oil blocks within next two weeks.

As per the Prime Minister, reforms will help the economy finance the Current Account Deficit (CAD), which is likely to decline only modestly initially in 2013-14, after that it is expected to hit a record in the financial year just gone by. The government has pegged India's CAD at around 5% of GDP in 2012-13, a new record after it touched 4.2% in the previous financial year. In the third quarter of 2012-13, CAD breached all records to touch 6.7% of GDP and stood at 5.4% in the first nine months of the current financial year against 4.1% a year ago. By adding further, Singh said, ‘we financed a CAD of over $90 billion in 2012-13 without a loss in (forex) reserves. We will take all steps to ensure that inflows remain strong for the next two years.’ 

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