India to
get $ 913.8 million WB loans
The World
Bank has announced four new bank loans and international development association
credits for India totalling 913.8 million US dollars taking the figures
for the current fiscal's lending to India to 2.5 billion dollars.
The funds
will help India support programme vital to lasting poverty reduction at
the national, state and local levels.
The Government
of India's strategy for poverty reduction encompasses a range of initiatives
from community level projects to nation wide development of social and
infrastructure projects. These projects support the government strategy
and balance broad economic growth and equitable access to basic services.
Some of the projects which will be provided aid are - The Karnataka Watershed
Development project, Karnataka Economic Restructuring project, the Grand
Trunk Road Improvement project and the National Highway between New Delhi
and Calcutta.
Panel set
up to monitor states' finances
The finance
ministry has constituted a framework, parallel to the Planning Commission,
under the Expenditure Finance Commission (EFC) to keep a tab on the states'
resources and monitor their path to fiscal reforms. The new division will
be a single window agency for routing all investment to the states and
work out a pragmatic fiscal reforms path.
Exports
up 4.47% in May
Exports increased
by 4.47 percent to $3.73 billion in May as compared to $ 3.57 billion last
year. As per the provisional data released on July 02, 2001 imports during
May, however, went up marginally by 2.45 percent to $ 4.46 billion
compared to $ 4.35 billion in the same month last year.
Exports during
April-May 2001-02 increased by 5.10 percent at $ 7.24 billion as compared
to $ 6.89 billion during the same period last year. But, imports declined
by 3.74 percent at $ 8.4 billion as against $ 8.7 billion during
April-May 2000-01.
The good performance
in exports, coupled with the decline in imports, helped reduce the trade
deficit during April-May 2001-2002 to $ 1.1 billion compared to $ 1.8 billion
during the corresponding period last year.
WB to push
seafood exports
West Bengal
government is to give a boost to the Rs.600 crore seafood export industry
of the state. In a bid to improve quality exports and ensure World Trade
Organisation compliant standards, state government has drawn up the blueprint
for its first state of the art seafood export processing zone. The export
processing zone, which envisages a capital outlay of Rs.10 crore, is expected
to be ready in two years. A committee for governing quality of seafood
exports would also be set up.
Central
assistance to be linked to states' exports
The commerce
department has decided to link central assistance for exports to a state's
quantum of exports and growth rate from the current fiscal itself.
A 50-50 weightage
will be given to the exports level and the growth rate while sanctioning
the assistance. Sources said the Centre would provide the entire fund to
a state without allocating it to particular schemes. A committee headed
by the state chief secretary will then allocate funds to various schemes.
The move has been initiated to increase the state governments' participation
in increasing India's exports and also to curb wastage of funds.
Fiscal
deficit up
Fiscal deficit
in April 2001 was Rs.15,051 crore, an increase of 18 percent over the corresponding
month last fiscal.
The past fiscal
year ended with a deficit of 5.21 percent of the GDP as against the revised
estimates of 5.1 percent on account of a Rs.15,178 crore shortfall in revenue
collections.
Market borrowings
during the first April shot up to Rs. 29,525 crore against Rs.8,694 crore
during the corresponding month last fiscal.
The deterioration
in the fiscal position has been mainly due to the fall in revenue earnings.
The non plan expenditure during April this year has been estimated at Rs.12,835
crore compared to Rs.12,249 crore earlier. The fiscal deficit moved up
to Rs.1,14,369 crore in 2000-2001 from the revised estimates of Rs.1,11,972
crore.
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