Panel to review FRBM in a month

Shaktikanta Das said he had hope that the constitutional amendment on a goods and services tax would be passed by Parliament

A committee to review the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act and on recommending a way to fix the fiscal deficit target in a band rather than to a particular decimal figure will be set up in a month or so, Shaktikanta Das, the government's economic affairs secretary, said on Wednesday.

At an event organised by business chamber Assocham, he said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stayed with the earlier fiscal deficit target of 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product as it was a question of the government’s credibility, "especially when it had benefited from low crude oil prices”, he said.

Jaitley had in his Budget speech on February 29 said the FRBM law would be reviewed, as it might be better to have a range of targets, enabling more flexibiliity in policy, and that a committee would be constituted for this.

On Wednesday, he said some of the ‘game changing’ reforms announced by Jaitley included dismantling of a permit raj in the passenger transport sector, easing renegotiations of public-private partnership agreements, giving legal backing to Aadhaar identity numbers and initiating several dispute resolution mechanisms in taxation.

Das also said he had hope of the constitutional amendment on a goods and services tax being passed by Parliament in the current session.  

“I am sure Parliament will appreciate the advantages,” he said. The government, he said, was ready with its preparation to implement the proposed change.