NEW DELHI, DEC 5: While outlining the achievements of the United Front government as far as economic reforms were concerned, Finance Minister P Chidamabaram today refused to make any predictions on GDP growth for the year. "It's been a roller-coaster year. One government fell soon after the budget was presented. The other fell in six months. I'm not making any assessments on GDP."An understandably dis-heartened Chidambaram also parried questions on whether the budget deficit would overshoot the target. In reply to a question on whether the decision to keep the service tax on traders in abeyance would hit revenues badly, he joked: "If that were the only hole in revenue collections, I'd be very happy."Chidambaram, however, added that he believed that the GAIL and IOC disinvestment would go ahead. "The process will neither be expedited nor slowed down." The year began, he said with the VSNL GDR, and that could just as well be considered an acronym for Very Successful New Listing. It has ended with MTNL - and considering that this is now trading at a premium, he added, this could just as well stand for Most Tempting New Listing!The Finance Minister also recalled the achievements of his ministry during the last 18 months and added "the United Front government has not reversed the economic reforms and on the contrary took several steps forward and kept pressure on for further reforms."One of the main achievements of the UF, according to Chidambaram was preparing six bills which would have changed the economic landscape of country. These are Foreign Exchange Management Bill (FEMA), Money Laundering (Prevention) Act, Hydrocarbons Development and Regulatory Authority, amendments to the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act and amendments to Mining and Minerals Regulation and Development Act. All these were to be introduced in Parliament. He hoped that new Parliament would find time to clear them.As far as VDIS was concerned, Chidambaram said that "thousands of people have made declarations under the scheme." Reiterating that no target collection was set, he said that best of the earlier such schemes were able to raise around Rs 1000 to Rs 1200 crore.When asked to describe his biggest failure as the Finance Minister, Chidambaram, obliquely referring to the failure of the IRA Bill, said, "my biggest failure was my inability to satisfy my hardest critics."
