Admitting that inflation had gone “out of hand”, he said the budget has outlined the path to bring fiscal deficit under control which could help rein it.
“The Finance Minister has charted a path to bring fiscal deficit under control. And if he succeeds in that course, I think he would have created a better climate for growth, better climate for investment and we would have also created a climate for lower latent levels of inflation that we have had in the last two years,” Singh said.
He favoured reduction, in the medium term, in the country's dependence on imports of iron, coal, gold and petroleum products to tackle the problem posed by current account deficit.
“This is a medium term objective. This can be achieved by reducing unwanted imports, partly by boosting the country's exports,” Singh said.
On problems faced by projects on account of clearances of various sorts, Singh said the government was committed to use the mechanism of the Cabinet Committee on Investments to clear the roadblocks to investments.
“We have committed ourselves to use the mechanism of Cabinet Committee on Investments to grapple with these tensions which exist in our system and to ensure that these roadblocks, whether they are in environment clearances or forest clearances or other roadblocks, are dealt with so that these roadblocks can be cleared,” Singh said.
