If the Finance Minister Jaswant Singh’s speech at the India Economic Summit 2003 on Sunday is anything to go by, the coming Budget in 2004 is expected to be soft and growth-oriented. Steps to improve quality of life through reforms and increased food security for the masses can also be in the offing.Addressing the inaugural plenary session at the India Economic Summit, 2003, organised jointly by the World Economic Forum and the CII, Singh promised to keep prices low with a benign inflation of less than 4.0 per cent. The Finance Minister also said that attempts would be made to increase the spending power of the people while assisting the poor through food subsidies. “I want countrymen to go and spend. The more they spend, the greater would be the production and income,” Singh said. The Finance Minister stressed on reforms as it was the “route” to attain higher growth of 6-7 per cent in this decade or even higher. Admitting that there was some set back to reforms especially in disinvestment after the Supreme Court judgement on HPCL and BPCL, Singh said that such things do happen in democracy but government was committed to the sell-off process and move away from those public sector enterprises which were a “drag” on the economy.Singh also said the government was committed to carry forward the “incomplete aspect” of reforms in banking and insurance sector. He indicated at the new guidelines which would be issued shortly to raise FDI in banking sector to 74 per cent from the present 49 per cent.To sustain the high agriculture growth of this fiscal on the back of good monsoon, Singh said, “we need a second green revolution, which would recognise India as a vast reservoir of agro products and processed food.”
