INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
all over the world are perennially in search of revenue to balance government budgets, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday favoured
printing currency as a way of deficit financing, citing the example of the US.Mr Goyal's remarks follow his presentation of the interim
Budget 2019-20 earlier this month, which contained major largesse for the stressed agriculture sector as well as tax sops for the middle
the gross domestic product (GDP)."As finance ministers we are always in need of money," Mr Goyal said addressing the foundation day
anniversary event of the state-run Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India (SPMCIL), and recalled that the Fiscal Responsibility
and Budget Management Act (FRBM), 2003, had been enacted during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government.The FRBM Act aims to
institutionalise financial discipline, reduce fiscal deficit, improve macroeconomic management and the overall management of the public
funds through a balanced budget."I have heard that the US does deficit financing only by printing currency," Mr Goyal said.He told the
gathering in jest that as finance minister he would have been happier if he had known of SPMCIL's recent creditable performance on both
the production and profit fronts.SPMCIL, which supplies bank notes, coins and security documents to the central government and the states,
posted a net profit of Rs 630 crore last year, of which Rs 200 crore has been handed over to the government as dividend.According to senior
officials, the company is on course to print 10,000 million pieces by the end of the current fiscal ending March.
