New Delhi, November 23
The Centre today allayed fears about an emerging financial crisis in the wake of unearthing of Rs 30,000 crore fake stamp paper scam and said all transactions using such papers would be valid.
“Don’t worry. The fake stamp papers already used will not become invalid,” Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit here, organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.
Any decision on a CBI inquiry into the scam will be taken after consultations with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister
L.K. Advani.
An official announcement was expected tomorrow.
The Finance Minister said the government was considering to put in place a non-stamp paper system which would replace the earlier judicial stamp paper system. Effectively this could mean that the
establishment of dement mechanism similar to that of capital market transaction.
Earlier speaking in the inaugural session of the summit of the WEF and the CII, Mr Singh indicated more reform measures was likely to be initiated by the government in the financial sector, especially the banking and the insurance sector.
He said issues the Ministry of Finance had was holding consultations with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regarding the banking sector issues but at the same time added that parliamentary approval was mandatory for this purpose.
“I have to carry Parliament with me”, he said adding that there was also a need to “move away from such public sector undertakings (PSUs) which are a drag and are not providing the necessary inputs. Therefore the disinvestment programme will continue”, he said.
“The Supreme Court took a stand and we are glad that the SC has decided to
reexamine it”, the Finance Minister said.
He also said development of infrastructure would continue to remain the primary focus areas of the government and indicated that budgetary allocation for this purpose could exceed last year figures.
“We will continue to emphasise on infrastructure. That is vital. Last year we decided to spend more in infrastructure than we ever did. That trend will continue”, Mr Singh said.
He said one should not be “disheartened” by the delays in the reforms process as the management of the economy was “politico-economic” process and “there might be temporary checks”.
Mr Singh indicated that steps could be taken to usher in a “second Green Revolution”. “Shortly we will move into the second green revolution involving areas such as food processing”, he said adding that the inadequate attention was so far being provided in areas such as water and agro-industries.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said India and the USA should continuously engage with each other and “must constantly refuel” the inputs and constantly provide each other the inputs characteristic of natural allies.
“We need to seriously address the economic aspect of our relationship. For the last four and a half-years we have been primarily addressing the political aspects and the economic aspects have largely remained in an unchartered territory”, he said.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh expressed concern over the rising fiscal deficit but exuded confidence that the government would be able to rein it into manageable levels.
He said India and China need to “recognise the complementarities” that both the countries can provide to each other.
“While People’s Republic of China is far ahead of us in terms of labour productivity and labour cost, India has a significant advantage in English language”, he added.
