India is urging global credit rating agencies to look at its fiscal deficit and debt numbers in the context of the stimulus spending requirements posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Stressing that the government\u2019s infrastructure spending push would have an \u2018immediate impact\u2019 on core sectors, opportunities for labour, and demand creation at the industry as well as consumer level, the Minister said she expected the Indian economy to recover and record good, sustainable growth in the next decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpending is being taken up even with borrowings, but we have also given a glide path on the fiscal deficit management,\u201d Ms. Sitharaman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are spending but we are also very clearly telling even the credit rating agencies that every country is going through the pandemic and every country has to spend to keep the stimulus going,\u201d she said in an address at the 65th foundation day of the All India Management Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo every country\u2019s rating will have to be in relative terms, and not just into the silo of India, \u2018x\u2019 or \u2018y\u2019 country. So spending, borrowing are all relative terms and we would want every institution to look at it with a sense of the relative understanding and context,\u201d Ms. Sitharaman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, because we have given the glide path, the fiscal deficit is something we will watch probably after the stimulus giving has shown clear impact on the ground,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Urging the industry to have confidence in the Centre\u2019s infrastructure building strategy as \u2018it is not just short-term relief\u2019 but investments whose impact could last for the \u201cnext 5-6 years,\u201d Ms. Sitharaman said it was now time for the industry to step up and invest.<\/p>\n
\u201cPost the corporate-tax reduction, I have been waiting to see expansion happen from the private sector in India. Now, the policy is clear and consistent, and ease of doing business is still going further,\u201d the Minister said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like now to see private investors in India coming forward with that so-called animal spirits to show that it is possible for India to pull up and keep it high as one of the fastest growing economies. It is now on your shoulders entirely,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith all your participation, involvement and ideas coming to us, I expect the Indian economy to recover and recover such that we are an exemplar for the entire world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Minister also said the government was privatising public sector units not for them to be closed down but for improving their operational efficiency with professional skills available outside the government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want them to be kept running. For an economy like ours, which has a high demand for many of these items of production like steel, coal or copper, that public sector firms have been making for decades now, the economy still needs them,\u201d the Finance Minister said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, when we are selling it away, it\u2019s not as though we are selling them away totally even if it ends up being closed. We want these institutions to be run better, and productivity to be improved over the next several decades,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n