Budget will be popular; let the mystery remains: Montek

New Delhi, June 22 (PTI) The first Budget to be unveiled
by the new India's UPA government on July 6 will be "popular",
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Alhuwalia
said.

"The word populist has negative overtones, but I am sure
(the) Finance Minister will present a popular Budget. However,
we should maintain the mystery of the Budget and you have to
wait and see what comes out," he told PTI in an interview.

Making a case for "strong government effort" to promote
growth, Ahluwalia said, "The Prime Minister has said we should
get back to between 8 and 9 per cent (economic growth rate),
that might take a couple of years. I think it is feasible but
it requires some strong and purposeful action."

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier in the month had
asked the Finance Ministry "to ensure that the next union
Budget adequately and appropriately reflects the priorities
and programmes outlined in the President's address to the
joint sitting of Parliament."

Among other things, President Pratibha Patil had
talked about a Food Security Act to provide 25 kg of rice or
wheat per month at Rs 3 per kg to people below poverty line.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who will be
presenting the Budget for 2009-10 in the Lok Sabha in first
week of July, has already indicated the government "would
continue to focus on public spending in employment oriented
growth sectors, increasing the purchasing power of the
people."

Besides, Mukherjee had said that the focus of the
government would also be on "development of rural sector--
both agriculture and non-agriculture-- and development of
labour intensive MSME sector".

Referring to the growth prospects during the current
fiscal, Ahluwalia said, "Everybody now agrees that the worst
is behind us and we must focus on reviving the momentum of
growth. Last year, our growth rate was about 6.7 per cent. We
are hoping we can do about 7 per cent this year."

Owing mainly to the impact of global financial crisis
on the country, economic growth rate fell to 6.7 per cent
during 2008-09, after posting 9 per cent in three consecutive
years.

Noting that fiscal deficit can take a back seat during
2009-10, he said, "What we want to do at present is advance
investment as much as possible so we can do more this year and
may be next year, and then as economy recovers, we can do
less. The idea is to anticipate the investment that otherwise
would have taken place a bit later.

"This means the fiscal deficit would be higher in the
short term, but would be lower in the future because we will
be only redistributing the expenditure. If we could actually
increase expenditure it would be wonderful but we do have
overall limits", he added. PTI KKS
AM
NNNN