NEW DELHI, Dec 1: The government is not "rattled" by the fall in value of rupee, says finance secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia. The currency slipped below the psychological barrier of Rs 39 per dollar on Monday.However, the finance secretary did agree that there was a cause for concern, and added that some strategy would be worked out by the Reserve Bank to arrest unnecessary speculation in the foreign currency market.Both finance secretary Ahluwalia and Reserve Bank governor Bimal Jalan met finance minister P Chidambaram in the evening to decide the course of action to stabilise the value of rupee.While sounding a warning note to the speculators, Ahluwalia said that they should not forget the experience of February 1996, when rupee had slipped but recovered sharply because of strong fundamentals. He felt that the same might happen this time also because, "the fundamentals, especially on the external front, continue to be strong."Meanwhile, sources in the finance ministry, denied that RBI had fixed any band in which the value of rupee would hover. It was stressed, "no such decision was taken by the finance ministry and RBI." As far as RBI was concerned, it would continue to enter the foreign exchange market whenever necessary to put a check on speculation. By and large, sources pointed out, the value of rupee would be determined by market.
