India's new Govt to unveil budget in early July: FM

INDIA: India's new Congress-led government plans to unveil its first budget in early July that will seek to balance economic growth with fiscal discipline, the finance minister said in a broadcast aired Tuesday.

The government will aim to spur a slowing economy at the same time as try to keep a lid on India's gaping fiscal deficit in the budget to be presented in the first week of July, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

"I have a priority for both growth and maintaining fiscal prudence," Mukherjee told India CNBC TV 18 network.

"Whatever the economy needs will be done," said Mukherjee, whose Congress party bounced back to office after winning the largest number of parliamentary seats since 1991 in marathon elections which ended earlier this month.

But he added: "We cannot engage in fiscal profligacy."

He forecast the economy would start picking up around October, helped by higher consumer and corporate spending as the effects of rapid interest rate cuts kick in, as long as there were no "drastically adverse" events.

Mukherjee said the government would seek in the budget to keep its poll promises to alleviate poverty in a country where more than 40 percent of the 1.1 billion population live on less than 1.25 dollars a day.

"Whatever needs to be done for poor of country and the common man is my main priority - the aam admi (common man) has to be at the focal point," he said.

But he said the budget would "address problems of sectors like textiles, leather, gems and jewellery as they are the ones hit hard by the financial crisis".

Indian exports dived 33.3 percent to 11.5 billion dollars in March from 17.25 billion dollars in the same month a year earlier.

New Delhi, Wednesday, AFP