No need to celebrate if growth jumps from 4.4% to 4.8%: Sinha

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha on Saturday said there is a need to unlock various projects in the country to boost the economic growth of the economy.

Speaking to the media here today, Sinha asked, " Is inflation rate coming from down 12 percent to 11 percent, a matter of celebration? Is the growth rate going to 4.8 percent from 4.4 percent, a matter of celebration? Is this the new normal for India? I don't think so."

"We need to unlock projects worth Rs 10 lakh crores, which are waiting for government clearance. This move will provide a major boost to the economy," Sinha said.

"We have to bring inflation under control by taking all supply side measures, which have been neglected by the current government over the years. Monitoring alone cannot solve the problem of inflation. This would pave way for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to bring down interest rates. It will be a powerful incentive for investments in India and, that will propel the India economy," he further added.

On the FDI in the banking sector, Sinha said, "As far as the banking sector is concerned, the government had brought a bill, which had been examined by the Standing Committee of Finance of which I am the chairman. The FDI can go upto 74 percent in the banking sector, but the voting rights were limited to 10 percent. We recommended that it should be increased from 10 to 26 percent and then monitoring should be done. Then, you can see how to move forward."

Speaking on the Pension Fund Bill, which was passed in the last session of Parliament, Sinha said, "In the finance committee which has UPA members in the majority, the general feeling is that in the financial sector, FDI should be limited to 26 percent, and this is what we had recommended in the Pension Fund Bill and the Insurance Bill. The Pension Fund Bill was passed in last session of Parliament, which had a FDI cap similar to the one in the Insurance Bill. But the Insurance Bill is still not passed. So, we have to wait for it.