Nirmala Sitharaman chants the growth mantra

New Delhi: Expressing the government's commitment to continue with reforms, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday assured India Inc that it is ready to do everything required to revive and support economic growth hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Stressing that there is a need to promote growth as it helps bring down poverty, she, however, said it would not be at the cost of inflation. RBI has been mandated to keep inflation at 4 per cent, with tolerance level of 2 per cent on either side. Both the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are working in tandem to achieve the objective, she said, while addressing the CII Annual Meeting 2021.

"You would have observed that in Modi 2.0 particularly and even earlier, the relationship with the RBI has been one of those in which we are working like partners to address the issues of the economy, even now, even during pandemic," the Finance Minister said. Both are working in tandem — monetary side is keeping the momentum in the right direction, while fiscal side is being taken care of by the finance ministry and coordination continues, she said.

"Growth will be given its importance. Growth will be pushed both by the Reserve Bank and by us. We also want to assure the industry that inflation in the last 7 years has not crossed 6 per cent except seasonal variation. Inflation has been well within that band which is before us," she said. Pointing out that she is not looking at growth versus inflation, Sitharaman said: "We should attend to inflation, keep it contained, take all the necessary steps, but never forget that growth is what is going to make the difference to the economy's revival and growth is what is eventually going to remove poverty and bring in a certain level playing field for all the Indian citizens." She said the government is looking at being an active participant in the economic recovery. 

Rigorous Effort on Privatisation Targets

♦ Completing privatisation of Air India, BPCL and other PSBs in FY22

♦ Public capital expenditure helped core sectors' growth to 8.9%

♦ Forex reserves at $620 bn as of July

♦ Buoyancy in both indirect and direct taxes