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Sinha to team up with Hegde to plan exports boost, calls Q1 results 'mixed'

Expressing concern over export downtrend, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has assured the parliamentary consultative committee of the finance ministry that Commerce Minister Hegde and he would meet to evolve ways of checking the slide.

Sinha described the first quarter financial results of companies as "mixed".

He also reiterated the Union government's resolve to raise exports and industrial and GDP growth rates.

Sinha told the committee that the government will expedite project implementation. September is the deadline for projects in both public and private sectors, he said.

Another cause for concern, he said, was the slackening rate of collection of indirect taxes. He disclosed that industrial growth and inflow of direct taxes was better than last year.

About the foreign financial institutions, the minister revealed that since this month, they have been displaying a positive trend. Foreign direct investment was better in June than in the past, he said.

The committee urged the minister to rein in rising prices of essential commodities and to lay thrust on the infrastructure sector. NRIs need to be given some incentives to invest in India, some members said.