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PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
New Delhi, Sept 4: Finance minister Yashwant Sinha on Saturday said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), if returned to power, will give top priority to opening up the insurance sector and the introduction of the single value-added tax (Vat) system.
In an interview to a television programme Ru-Ba-Ru, Sinha also said provision of action on fudging of accounts in the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema) bill will be dropped in the wake of the recommendations of the parliamentary standing committee.
"We will certainly move in the direction of introducing a single-rate Vat, which could be around 16 per cent," he said, adding approval of the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) bill and Fema will be the top priorities. Without introducing Vat, "we couldn't make our tax system really at par with international standard," he said, pointing out that apart from IRA and Fema there were lots of progressive bills which could not be passed due to the dissolution of the Lok Sabha.
Asked about themeasures being taken to control fiscal deficit, he said cutting down expenditure, downsizing government and zero-based budgeting are some of the steps where the government has initiated action. On full convertibility of the rupee, he said the government will have to first reduce the current account deficit before moving on to capital account convertibility.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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