Government to further liberalize the FDI policy: Chidambaram

01 Aug 2013 Evaluate

Against the backdrop of depreciating Rupee, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has asserted that the government will further liberalize the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy and encourage public sector undertakings to raise funds from overseas markets.

Chidambaram, who completed one year as finance minister, also exuded confidence that economy would record a growth rate of 5.5% to 6% in the current fiscal, up from 5% a year ago. Additionally, he assured that fiscal deficit (FD) will be limited to 4.8% in FY14 and the present rate of inflows will add at least $ 80 billion to the exchequer and to that extent the government will be able to reduce the Current Account Deficit (CAD).

Chidambaram underscored that the government was mulling raising import duty on non-essential luxury items and promoting exports to contain widening CAD, which had soared to a high of 4.8% of the GDP last fiscal. Meanwhile, the other steps, which were being considered by the government to tackle the CAD, include relaxing the External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) norms, attracting investments from sovereign wealth and pension funds and NRI deposits.

On whether the measures taken to strengthen the rupee would add to the subsidy bill, finance minister stated out that there were a number of factors that would decide the subsidy bill other than currency movement. Moreover, on the possibility of a sovereign bond issue to raise forex, he said, 'that is an option on the table but I will not rush into any decision'.

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