New Delhi: A day after the Kelkar committee report was made public, the head of the government-appointed panel, Vijay Kelkar, told NDTV that the suggestions made by the panel are not contrary to the government's objective of sustained and inclusive growth.
"I don't think the panel's recommendations are contrary to the declared government objective of sustained and inclusive growth," he said.
Responding to the report of Kelkar committee, the government had earlier said that panel's suggestions on removal of subsidy were contrary to government's policy of protecting poor. "The government is of the view that in a developing country where a significant proportion of the population is poor, a certain level of subsidies is necessary and unavoidable, and measures must be taken to protect the poor and vulnerable sections of the society", Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) secretary Arvind Mayaram had said.
Further, Mr. Kelkar told NDTV: "More needs to be done in the area of disinvestment, pruning of expenditure and continued price revisions."
He also said that the panel has put forward its suggestion before the government that the futures and options (F&O) market should be put to use for the disinvestment drive.
The government aims to garner about Rs 30,000 crore by way of disinvesting four to five state-run companies in the current financial year (FY13).