India to press ahead with privatisation
Indian Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said Friday the government would press ahead with the privatisation of state-run firms, a report said.
"Government should withdraw from sectors where private participation is more productive and more efficient," Singh was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.
"The scope of government remains largely in social and infrastructure sectors, for it is the ultimate risk taker."
But Singh warned that regulatory systems needed to be strong.
"We cannot have reforms in the absence of strong regulatory mechanisms," he said.
The finance minister said "genuine reforms depend on the combination of market forces, the formal rules which the companies dislike and the self-regulation which they prefer."
Singh said the government had already initiated a number of laws to redefine the roles of the government and regulators.
The privatisation programme has faced intense opposition, even from within the government.
One of the aims of privatisation is to trim the government's budget deficit to 5.3 per cent of gross domestic product in the fiscal year to March.
The government has so far only managed to raise 50 billion rupees (one billion dollars) from privatisation in the current year against a targeted 120 billion rupees.
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