P Chidambaram’s efforts to keep the Indian Budget within a well-contained fiscal deficit of 5.2 percent as appreciated by Montek Singh Ahluwalia. The planning Commission said that the initiatives taken in the budget will have a very positive effect on the economy. Montek is the commission’s Deputy Chairman.
Ahluwalia said, “On the whole, the budget touches and deals with the critical issues of the macro imbalance…It holds out a lot of other possible initiatives, which over time could have very positive effects on the economy”. Singh, in an interview said that the Finance Minister has done a fairly responsible approach on the expenditure front and that there is a lot of stability on the taxation front.
Ahluwalia added, “…The central message that the budget speech gave is that we must now gear up to get the growth rate back”. The increase which is provided is very substantial, in terms of the increase in planned spending, as compared to the expenditure that the ministries will be actually undertaking in the current year.
The different ministries are not able to spend due to the fact that they are not getting forest clearance, they are also unable to work as a team.
