Infrastructure: Pay and use

Setting the agenda for providing high growth enabling infrastructure, the survey called for enforcing user charges and a regulatory framework that fosters competition to ensure effective delivery of infrastructure services. Noting healthy contributions from all segments in the 5.4 per cent growth rate of infrastructure sector in April-December 2002-03, it stated success of policies must be judged by the quality, quantity and prices that end-users are charged for these services, and comparisons with global standards.

Over a decade of focus on infrastructure policy has led to substantial progress in some areas and broad outlines now emerging are to 8216;8216;involve new institutional arrangements, well-enforced user charges, private sector production, and a regulatory framework that fosters competition,8217;8217; the survey stated.