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August 16, 1999

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BJP-led NDA promises 8 pc GDP growth and $ 10b annual FDI

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The newly formed National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party has said that it plans to revitalise economic reforms and keep a nationalist thrust if voted to power.

Recent opinion polls have indicated a comfortable majority for the NDA in the national election due in September-October.

The NDA released its election manifesto today in New Delhi. It said it would try to rein in the fiscal deficit.

"We will bring GDP growth to the 7 to 8 per cent bracket and control deficit -- fiscal and revenue," the alliance said in the document.

GDP growth was 6 per cent in 1998/99 (April-March) and the government expects to sustain the rate in 1999/2000.

The alliance said it will enact a legislation -- the Fiscal Responsibility Act -- to check government finances, while maintaining a "strong nationalist thrust" in economic reforms.

The NDA aims to cut the fiscal deficit in 1999-2000 to 4 per cent from 4.5 per cent the previous year. Revenue deficit is considered a key part of the fiscal deficit, which includes the overall budgetary deficit and government borrowings.

The alliance said it aimed to attract $10 billion in foreign direct investment annually. FDI was in excess of $2 billion in 1998.

The document assured that the NDA would correct the "budgetary neglect of defence needs", in the wake of Indo-Pakistan tensions.

The NDA said it would continue reforms with a strong nationalist thrust to "ensure that the national economy grows on the principle that 'India shall be built by Indians'..."

"Swadeshi (national self-reliance) is not reinventing the wheel. It means that we facilitate the domestic industry to gain enough muscle to compete with multinationals in the local and global markets," the manifesto said.

ALSO SEE

Election manifesto of the Congress -- economic promises

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