The Indian economy has developed the resilience to absorb internal and external shocks after emerging out of the global financial crisis better than most other countries, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Sunday.
Inaugurating a new building complex for the office of the Commissioner of Customs (Airport and Air Cargo) adjoining the Chennai airport, Mr. Mukherjee said though the country had come out of the global financial recession as the fastest growing economy, next only to China, there was no room for complacency as “the challenges are enormous for a growing economy”.
Stressing the important role played by exports and imports in a modern economy, Mr. Mukherjee said the Centre's policies were focussed on keeping the trade gap within manageable limits as a sharp export-import imbalance could cause concern in the long term as it manifested in the current account scenario.
Situation in check
The Ministry of Finance was working closely with the Revenue Ministry and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) to keep the trade deficit-current account imbalance situation in check, he said.
Union Minister of State for Finance S. S. Palanimanickam, S. Dutt Majumder, CBEC chairman, Sunil Mitra, Secretary (Revenue), J.M. Shanthi Sundharam, Chief Commissioner of Customs and R. Periasami, Commissioner of Customs, Chennai also participated.
Earlier, Mr. Mukherjee chaired a meeting of officials of CBDT and CBEC and presented the state of the macro economy.
