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Planning Commission confident of 7% GDP growth

Last updated on: December 17, 2003 17:04 IST

Planning Commission member N K Singh on Wednesday expressed confidence that the country would see over seven per cent growth in gross domestic product during the current financial year, but said that maintaining the growth rate would be a difficult task.

"There is a euphoria so far as economic growth is concerned and we are confident of recording over seven per cent growth in GDP, but the problem will be to sustain that growth," Singh said, speaking at an interactive session on 'Economic policy reform issues' with Stanford Center for International Development, Stanford University, United States, organised by CII in Kolkata.

Singh said presently the commission was focusing on reforms in the power and energy sector and how to improve the process to get better results.

"Planning Commission's first report on power sector on creation of enabling fiscal regime for power and energy sector would be submitted to the finance ministry on December 24," he said.

Coming back to the subject of the interaction, Singh said the country also needed reforms in tax collection methods and also in healthcare and education in rural areas to derive the benefit of economic reforms.

Earlier, Roger Noll of SCID said the process of economic development was triggered by public and private sector participation and second generation reforms in India would now have to be led by the states.

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