JOIN USBudget to focus on crisis-hit sectors: FM
Racing against time to avert a second vote-on-account, Mukherjee said: “I would not like to have a second batch of vote-on-account... the budget will be presented in the first week of July.” The budget will have to be passed before July 31, failing which another interim budget would be mandatory.
“We have identified issues and areas of concern that need to be addressed in this budget and will work closely with Manmohan Singh in presenting the first budget,” Mukherjee said in an interview to private news channel CNBC-TV18.
The focus of the government policies would be “Aam Admi” (common man), he said, adding that the budget would address the problems of sectors like textiles, leather and gems and jewelery as they are the ones hit hard by the global financial crisis. “Aam Admi is to be at the focal point,” Mukherjee said. Similarly, the issue of providing food security would get top priority, he added.
Stimulus packages
On another stimulus package to boost the economy, Mukherjee said the government had since December last announced three packages while noting that signs of economic recovery in Europe are not promising. Asked whether he would prefer growth to fiscal prudence, Mukherjee said: “What is needed is stimulus to growth, we cannot indulge in fiscal profligacy.” The job of a finance minister, he added, is to strike a balance between the competing demands of different sections of society. On economic growth, Mukherjee said 2008-09 growth will be close to the assessment made by the Central Statistical Organisation, which projected the economy to expand by 7.1 per cent in 2008-09.
On the current year, he said, things may start picking up in the second half. “I am hoping so. Some indications are available.”