70% Chance of GST Getting through before 2014; Not in the race for PM - FM
ADDRESSING the Economist 's India Summit yesterday, the Finance Minister Chidambaram said that there was 70 per cent chance for the important tax reform of GST to take place in the next 13 months.
“We have reached a stage when the empowered committee has authorised us to draft it. If these drafts are endorsed by the committee, then the percentage of possibility of GST will increase,'' he said.
The FM said that the fiscal reforms will continue and there would be no early elections.
FM SPEAK: We are determined to go back to the path of fiscal consolidation. We have laid out a new path and I have said these are red lines. These will never, never be breached. Going forward, in 2013-14, the fiscal deficit will be contained below 4.8 per cent of the GDP.
CAD (Current Account Deficit)is indeed high and is more worrying than the fiscal deficit. In 2012-13, CAD is expected to be USD90-94 billion. The satisfying aspect of this is that we have financed it completely without drawing down our reserves.
We will continue to take small significant steps. We will also take forward some big ideas. India's economy will continue to reform.
People talk about elections. They say have you not heard the bugle of election? I have not heard it. It is 13 months away. I believe the Government has to work every day until the last day of its term that is precisely what the Government will do.
No to PM: I have no such expectations. I have no such aspiration and I believe that in the few years that remain to me, I want to do few other things, like travel; I did not have enough opportunity to work at party level, except for a brief period when I was General Secretary of State Congress party. I want to prove that I can also do party work. I will love to do party work, but I would do whatever the party asks me to do.