FM decries opp to capital account convertibility

Bangalore, Mar 24: Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram today decried opposition to Capital Account Convertibility and said the country should be prepared to introduce it.

''The idea of capital account convertibility was proposed first in 1997 by the Tarapore Committee. However, the Asian monetary crisis followed...we had in the back of mind the Tarapore Committee report.'' With the containing of the fiscal and revenue deficits, increase in foreign exchange reserves and check in inflation, the Government was ''in striking distance of achieving the goal set by the Tarapore Committee,'' he said.

However, some employees of the Reserve Bank of India were opposing the capital account convertibility, he regretted.

Mr Chidambaram was speaking after inaugurating SyndBank Services Limited, the first BPO subsidiary of nationalised banks, floated by Syndicate Bank here.

UNI