Government working on consensus on Pension Reforms

New Delhi, Oct 7 (UNI) Finance Minister P Chidambaram today argued for creation of long term debt instruments and certain second generation reforms, like Pension and Infrastructure Reforms, to help tap resource requiremnts to the tune of 320 billion dollars in the next five years for the development of Infrastruture.

Addressing a session at the mega official Infrastructure Conference here, Mr Chidambaram said funds necessary for modernisation of infrastructure are unlikely to be available unless new instruments are tapped for this purpose.

He said in the next few weeks the coalition partners of the UPA government will try to evolve a consensus on Pension Reforms so that a Bill can be brought forward in this regard.

Quoting the figure put out by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the morning of 320 billion dollars required in the next five years for the development of infrastructure sector, Mr Chidambaram said within a month he intends having a meeting with stakeholders in the projects to review the progress of newly created mechansims like the Viability Gap Funding.

Mr Chidambaram said credit growth of 31 per cent was not a danger signal as was being made out to be in some quarters. But what needs to be insured is that productive sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing and agriculture, do not suffer. He said the asset-liability management mismatch of deposit growth being nearly 20 per cent needs be bridged.

The growth of credit has been the highest for the manufacturing sector, which was a positive sign and reflective of the robust growth of the sector.

The next highest credit growth has been in the housing sector, followed by peronal loans.

He said he was not against loans being given for consumer durables, cars and the like, but this should be done only after credit requirements of productive scetors are met.

Mr Chidambaram ordered that a list of consultants be prepared for various infrastructure projects which would be useful to the state governments.

UNI GS SBA BD1854