Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said here on Thursday that concerns about the impact of a deficient monsoon on the economy were “misplaced” and “far-fetched”.
He told presspersons that conclusions were being made in an exaggerated manner after the India Meteorological Department forecast on Tuesday that rainfall would be only 88 per cent of the long-term average.
“The speculation and analyses we have seen in the last 48 hours ever since India predicted a deficient monsoon this year, appear to be somewhat misplaced,” he said.
Mr. Jaitley said what was relevant was the geographical distribution of the monsoon and the timing of rain. “These are almost as significant, if not more, as the volume of rainfall … by which the impact is more significant than the sheer volume itself.”
The Minister said foodgrain production would not be affected significantly by a below-normal rainfall in the north-western region as it was well irrigated, while the monsoon had been projected to be normal in the rest of the country.
Also, India had enough foodgrain stocks to meet any contingency, he said. “The food management we saw last year prevented any form of inflationary trends and this year too, price rise will be curbed,” he said.
He had allocated an additional Rs. 5,000 crore in the Budget for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which was expected to help address the problem of rising distress in rural incomes.
“The advance predictions appear to be suggesting that rainfall will be closer to normal in the southern, central and north-eastern zones … slight inadequacy if at all will be in the north-west … so that will be parts of Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Punjab where irrigation facilities are available,” he said.
The Finance Minister said incoming data on the economy had been showing that the recovery trend was continuing. Of this, he said, the latest figures on indirect tax collections, in particular, were encouraging.
