Debt monetisation not on govt's agenda at present: DEA Secretary

Economic Affairs Secretary Tarun Bajaj on Thursday said that monetisation of debt is not on the government's agenda at the moment, while pointing that there are some positive signs on the revenue collection front.

Economic Affairs Secretary Tarun Bajaj on Thursday said that monetization of debt is not on the government's agenda at the moment while pointing that there are some positive signs on the revenue collection front. "At this point in time, I have some calculations. I have some plans in mind... RBI has assisted us in a great deal this time. At this point in time monetization is not on the table at all. It has not been discussed with the central bank also," he said.

He said that revenues are going up and the government has also realized some extra revenue from excise on petrol and diesel. "That is something that is going to help us. Let's see, I will be in a better position to answer this after 3-4 months when I have data in my hand," he said at a virtual conference organized by FICCI.

Monetization of debt simply means the central bank printing currency for the government to take care of any emergency spending and to bridge its fiscal deficit. Hard-pressed for the fund, the government has already increased its borrowing target by over 50 percent from Rs 7.8 lakh crore to Rs 12 lakh crore in May.

In order to boost manufacturing, Bajaj said the government has already announced production linked incentives for mobile and medical equipment and pharma. The government is working on extending the scheme to another 4-6 sunrise sectors with a lot of export potential.

"This is another area that we are looking at where we are trying to force manufacturing growth in the country," he said. Pinning hopes on the agriculture sector, he said, it is one bright spot even in this difficult period.

Production of Rabi crop was good, and Kharif is also expected to be good, he said. Although agriculture is not contributing to the GDP significantly, it still looks after about 40 percent of the population, who are directly dependent on this sector.

"If we have some prosperity in the rural areas thanks to agriculture growing up, it will have some effect on manufacturing, services, and growth of certain companies like FMCG," he said. He expressed hope that the country will be back on the growth journey from next year.

In line with the "Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan" package, the Economic Affairs Secretary said the government will soon come out with a list of strategic sectors, and public sector companies in non-strategic sectors will be privatized. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in May announced that there will be a maximum of four public sector companies in strategic sectors, and state-owned firms in other segments will eventually be privatized.

Bajaj also said the government will soon decide on the privatisation of two sets of six Indian airports, including those in Amritsar, Indore, Ranchi, Trichy, Bhubaneswar, and Raipur. The government had started the process of privatization of airports in November 2018, awarding three out of six airports to Adani Group, which had emerged as the highest bidder. These were airports of Ahmedabad, Mangalore, and Lucknow.