Present Government-established Expenditure Management Commission would stick to its deadline for submitting its interim report before 2015-16 Budget.

Bimal Jalan, Chairman of the Expenditure Management Commission, said here at a Calcutta Chamber of Commerce organised event on Monday that the interim report would submitted in January.

The commission Chairman also said the final report would be submitted before the 2016-17 Budget as scheduled. The NDA Government in August 2014 set up the commission for having a long-term plan for reducing the Government expenditure, particularly subsidies, to bring down fiscal deficit. The commission is to suggest ways to reform management of oil, fertilizer and food subsidies, one of the biggest drags on public expenditure of the country.

Close watch on crude oil, dollar

After the event, Jalan told Business Line that the recent dip in international price of crude oil and fall in value of rouble against dollar needed to be watched closely.

“We have to look into the developments. The Russian Government and the Central Bank have taken some measures”, he said. There were elements of uncertainty and inexplicability over the issues, he said. “It is difficult to gauge the impact (on the Indian currency and economy). How long these would continue cannot be predicted as well”, he said.

The former Governor of RBI said that as of now the impact on country’s foreign reserves and balance of payment on trade owing to fall in value of rouble was not significant. The real effective exchange rate remained within a range, he felt.

Replying to another question, he said that the allocation of natural resources through auction was an acceptable way of generating revenue.

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