New Delhi: For second straight day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday brainstormed with finance minister Arun Jaitley and officials about the economic situation linked to the rupee’s recent fall and spike in fuel prices but the government remained non-committal on cutting tax on petrol and diesel.
The government claimed that it is determined to keep fiscal deficit at 3.3 per cent of GDP and confident of surpassing the 7-7.5 per cent GDP growth target projected in the Budget. The government assured that there will be no cuts in capital expenditure for the current fiscal year as it is committed to push economic growth at a time of challenging external environment.
A day after steps to contain the widening current account deficit (CAD) and check fall of the rupee were announced, Mr Jaitley said, ‘As far as capital expenditure is concerned which is necessary for maintaining high trajectory of growth, already we have spent till August 31 about 44 per cent of budgetary expenditure and we will end the year without any cuts. We will maintain 100 per cent capital expenditure because that is extremely necessary for maintaining growth rate.’ DC
