Back from his road shows in East Asia and Europe to allay investor concerns over India’s taxation policies for attracting foreign investment and laying down the contours of the reforms agenda, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, on Thursday, reiterated the government’s commitment to fiscal consolidation along with efforts to boost investor confidence to get back to the high growth path.
Addressing the country’s financial sector regulators here as part of pre-Budget consultations, Mr. Chidambaram highlighted the efforts being made to turn the economy around and create a more investor-friendly climate.
In his address while chairing the sixth meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), Mr. Chidambaram, according to an official statement here, reiterated the government’s firm resolve on “observing the path of fiscal consolidation and imposition of fiscal targets and policies that will make necessary fiscal correction needed for the economy and take the economy back to the path of higher growth.”
The Finance Minister also informed members that to encourage foreign flows into India and offer reassurance on the positive investment climate, he had recently held discussions with a cross-section of international investors at Singapore, Hong Kong, London and Frankfurt last month and “hoped to get positive results.”
The FSDC meeting was attended by RBI Governor D. Subbarao, SEBI Chairman U. K. Sinha, PFRDA Chairman Yogesh Agarwal and IRDA Chairman J. Hari Narayan. The Finance Ministry was represented, among others by Finance Secretary R. S. Gujral, Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram, Revenue Secretary Sumit Bose, Disinvestment Secretary Ravi Mathur, and Chief Economic Advisor Raghuram G. Rajan.
The financial sector regulators presented their suggestions regarding the forthcoming Budget 2013-14.
