Parl must function, pass laws to boost growth: Chidambaram

New Delhi, Oct 17:

must function and pass laws necessary for promoting economic reforms and boosting growth, Finance Minister

said.

"We have, of course, a Parliament, which is very robust. It is good that we have a robust Parliament, but I would like Parliament to transact business. There is nothing wrong with a noisy... Parliament. But we must transact business, we must pass laws," he said at a book release function here.

His statement comes at a time when many of the reforms initiatives taken by the government like raising FDI cap in insurance sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent and opening up pension sector to foreign investment would need parliamentary approval.

The monsoon session of Parliament was almost a washout because of the controversy over CAG report on allocation of coal blocks. "I think we need to manage our politics better. Even if we succeed to manage our demographics and manage our economics, we must manage our politics better if we want to reach that goal of a richer state with more people sharing prospect," Chidambaram said.

Regretting that there is opposition to the growth model, he said, "the sooner we learn to accept our model of growth the better we will be able to manage our economy."

"We still do not have consensus on our model (of growth). There are too many voices of dissent. There are too many people who hold us back, too many voices that hold us back. We have too many protests, too many demonstrations, too much dissidence," he said.

He further said in the absence of reforms initiative, the difference in growth rates between India and China would widen. "China continues to grow at a rate faster than India. Even in a slowdown china is expected to grow at 7.5 per cent and India is predicted to grow at 5.5 (per cent)...," he said.

PTI