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– Kamal Narang

The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, with the Minister of State, Mr S.S. Palanimanickam, and the Finance Secretary, Mr Ashok Chawla, during the inaugural session of the Economic Editors Conference in the Capital on Tuesday.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov. 3 The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, today made it clear that the Government was not right now planning to exit from the fiscal stimulus packages rolled out since September 2008 in the aftermath of the global financial meltdown.

“I am not thinking of any exit strategy right now. I will take a view on it as and when we are convinced that the economy has come out of the worst situation and is in the firm path of recovery,” Mr Mukherjee said at the Economic Editors Conference here today.

The Finance Minister highlighted that he had also advised the G-20 leaders on the same lines. He had said at the last G-20 meeting that it would be better for each country concerned to take a call on the timing of the exit depending on their respective special circumstances, as each country was affected by the financial crisis at different points of time. “There cannot be any straitjacket global formula for the exit policy and I am sticking to it,” Mr Mukherjee said.

On disinvestment, Mr Mukherjee said that he was not going to read out in public the list of companies in which disinvestment would take place in the current fiscal. “I will watch the market carefully and when I find that I can get the maximum value, I will offload the stake after due diligence and consultation with the experts,” he said.

Mr Mukherjee said that India’s return to the 9 per cent trajectory will depend not only on recovery in India but also recovery in the world economy. Nearly 60 per cent of the country’s merchandise exports are to the Europe and North America.

“Unless there is robust recovery of demand for goods and services there, it would be difficult for us to get to the 30 per cent growth in exports recorded in recent years. It is difficult to predict when we will return to 9 per cent GDP growth levels. It will take a year or little more than that,” he said.

On the measures that could be expected to propel growth, the Finance Minister said he would like to have a “hard assessment” of the adverse impact of the south west monsoon and impact of untimely floods in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka before deciding on future course of action.

“Much would depend on the availability of these inputs. The Government is sensitive to take short-term corrective requirements as and when it is felt necessary and the situation demands more. We will not hesitate to do that.”

Meanwhile, on the issue of black money stashed by Indians in Swiss banks, Mr Mukherjee said that a team of Government officials will visit Switzerland in the second week of this month and begin talks for renegotiating the double taxation avoidance agreement with that country.

The Finance Minister said that the DTAA would be amended to have an information exchange clause inserted according to OECD norms. This would pave the way for exchange of information between the two countries and help curb tax evasion, he noted.

On agriculture, Mr Mukherjee asserted that it would not be right to infer that the Government had not provided any stimulus package to that sector. “One of the stimulus packages which we are providing to the farmers is the remunerative prices. The minimum support prices of wheat or rice has been stepped up. In terms of per quintal it has been stepped up Rs 350 to Rs 400. This we have been giving from 2004 to 2009,” he said.

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