New Delhi: Amid controversies related to coal block allocations and sale of government's stake in ONGC through auction route, Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu on Friday said India is new to the art of auction and efforts are needed to improve the process.
"India is new to this art of auction. So yes we will be learning. We will be improving on it and I am sure what we have done in the past have left us with some scope for improvement," Basu told reporters on the sidelines of an event.
He added that "there are minor defects which you can always find out. Even the 3G auction which was excellently done, people have brought to our attention to the fact that in the closure rule of that auction, there could be some improvement."
His comments assume significance as it comes a day after Parliament was rocked over a draft report of the CAG that held that exchequer lost Rs 10.7 lakh crore on account of allocation of coal blocks without auction between 2004 and 2009.
Commenting on the convertibility of rupee, he said the time is ripe for India to go in for capital account convertibility and allow Indian enterprises to take advantage of the extremely cheap funds available globally.
"Time ripe for greater capital account convertibility. That is direction in which India should go and first signal of that you are getting in budget," he said.
There is sharp rise in-bound and out-bound capital flows which account for 53 per cent of the GDP as against 7-8 per cent 15 years ago.
Capital account convertibility will give freedom to residents to convert local financial assets into foreign financial assets and vice-versa at market determined rates of exchange.
Comments
0 comment