''The private sector is a reasonable saver. The public sector, which has been a dis-saver, is today a marginal saver. But the government sector is a notorious dis-saver,'' the minister said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the Calcutta Leather Complex.
''The government must adopt technology to become efficient and avoid wasteful expenditure and cease to be a dis-saver,'' he said and urged the private sector to make up for the 'dis-saving' by the government sector.
While expressing satisfaction at the savings propensity of the private sector, the finance minister said the country needed to increase the savings-GDP ratio to raise domestic investment flow.
''Thankfully our people save. Bulk of our investment today comes from domestic savings by the middle-class households ... But we need to improve the savings-GDP ratio further. China's savings-GDP ratio is as high as 40 per cent while the same for India is only 27-28 per cent,'' he said.
Chidambaram said the total savings in the economy had touched a high in 2003-4 leading to higher investment. ''In 2004-05, it is expected to rise. I find evidence of that from off-take of bank credit, number of green-field projects and projects inaugurated,'' he said.
Besides raising the savings ''we must be clever to tap those savings for investments,'' he said.