The Centre is seriously working on kick starting 1,400-odd stalled projects, which are keeping the banking system under stress, Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said on Saturday. “The Government is working to restart the 1,400-odd stalled projects, which is creating a stress on the banking system, and put them back on track,” he said at an interaction organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce.
He said the PMO is seized of the matter, adding that the Govt is addressing the issues of land acquisition, environmental matters and fuel linkages, which are seen to be holding up the projects. The issue of fuel linkages, the minister said, had been largely resolved as the Govt had allocated the cancelled coal blocks. Stating that the Centre was committed to taking the GDP growth to 8-10 per cent in the next decade in a non-inflationary mode, he said it was imperative to build the country's productive capacity by creating ‘hard and soft assets’.
Asked whether the Government was prepared to tackle the problem of less-than-normal monsoon as predicted by the IMD recently, Sinha said a number of contingency plans and rapid response mechanisms are in place. “We are fully prepared to deal with the situation as last year also witnessed a deficit monsoon,” he added. Meanwhile maintaining that higher borrowings by individuals will lead to purchase-led growth, Sinha said interest rates should fall and hopefully, the RBI will look into that.
“Interest rates should fall so that higher borrowings will lead to more purchases of articles and RBI should look into that aspect,” Sinha observed, adding that “RBI is a very professional data-driven organisation and they would obviously look at the facts before taking any decision.” He however added cautiously that it would have to be seen how the data play out, clarifying that a rate cut was not imperative for re-starting stalled projects.