No decision taken on capital account convertibility : Govt

New Delhi, Mar 21 (UNI) The government today asserted that no decision had been taken on Capital Account Convertibility, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had been wrongly quoted on that.

''All that the Prime Minister said was that he will request the Reserve Bank of India to examine what steps need to be taken for capital account convertibility,'' Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in that the Rajya Sabha.

He was briefly intervening in a discussion on the Finance Bill, 2006, in the House when CPI(M) member Sitaram Yechury was speaking.

Earlier in his speech, Mr Yechury opposed the reported move by the government saying this was not the right time and the country was not prepared for such convertibility at present.

''No decision has been taken,'' the Finance Minister added.

The Prime Minister had in Mumbai on Saturday, reportedly asked the Mr Chidambaram and the RBI to prepare a roadmap for moving towards capital-account convertibility, saying India's own position, externally and internally, had become far more comfortable.

The Left parties had asserted that the move would be ''strongly opposed and resisted.'' UNI RB MSJ GC1539