Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram Friday said the government is at a "striking distance" of implementing the Tarapore Committee Report on capital account convertibility and criticised "some employees" of RBI for opposing the full float of the rupee.
"Today, we are at a striking distance of the goals set by the Tarapore Committee", he said at a function that marked the launching of SyndBank Services Limited, a wholly-owned BPO subsidiary of Sydicate Bank and its 525th centralised banking solution branch.
"Why should some employees of the Reserve Bank of India question the wisdom of this idea", Chidambaram wondered.
"They should examine the idea and contribute to the debate if they so wish. But an idea should not be opposed merely because one is not familiar with it."
He said the idea of capital account convertibility was formally proposed in 1997 and the report presented.
"(Then) Asian crisis overtook us. Nevertheless, we kept that report at the back of our mind. We moved towards containing fiscal deficit, revenue deficit, increasing our foreign exchange reserves and containing inflation", Chidambaram added.