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Budget to be guided by Fiscal Responsibility Bill: Sinha

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has said that the forthcoming budget will be guided by the Fiscal Responsibility Bill which seeks to bring down non-plan expenditure and expressed hope that GDP growth will pick up.

"The next Budget will be guided by the responsibilities outlined in the Fiscal Responsibility Bill introduced in Parliament last session," Sinha said during his meeting with the visiting German Finance Minister Hans Eichel in New Delhi.

He also reiterated government's commitment to second generation reforms, adding that the issue of equity was of prime importance while undergoing the reforms process.

"The prime minister has declared the first decade of the current millennium as 'The Decade of Growth' and the Finance Ministry is taking all steps to accelerate the GDP growth rate," Sinha said.

Sinha also lauded Germany's sound management of the German economy, especially its long-term austerity programme aimed at completely eliminating federal debt by 2006 and said that India greatly appreciated the move to reorient the World Bank and its policies toward poverty elimination.

The German minister said that the two countries had long-standing political and cultural ties and complemented India for its firm commitment to economic reforms, particularly in the financial sector, besides opening up of the insurance sector.

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