FICCI chief calls for competitiveness of rupee for its strengthening

New Delhi, June 4 (ANI): Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry ( FICCI) President R.V. Kanoria on Monday highlighted the need to increase competitiveness of the rupee in order to strengthen it, while asserting that the Central Government could do little to help in the current economic scenario.

"The rupee situation is a creation of all our deficits, today we have fiscal deficit, current account deficit, we have high short term borrowings, we are not receiving FII (Foreign Institutional Investors). So, it is a combination of factors," said Kanoria.

"I don't think the government really has any control, over where the rupee will go, the rupee can only improve if we improve our competitiveness," he added.

Recently, the rupee fell to a record low beyond 56.50 per dollar. Its slide of 14 percent from its 2012 high adds to inflation concerns in the country and raises the cost of imports.

Kanoria further said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government needs to recognise the crisis in the Indian economy.

"We need to recognise that there is a crisis and once we recognise the crisis we believe that governments are ultimately capable of taking decisions and that the process of give and take will then get accelerated. So, the governments have acted in 1991, 1997, 1998, 2008, in each case there were coalition government let us not forget that," said Kanoria.

"Therefore, to say that coalition politics is not capable of taking decisions we don't think that is true, we just need to recognise that there is a crisis," he added.

Kanoria nodded in agreement that there existed a deficit of trust in between the UPA Government and its allies, but said that there was hope for a solution.

"I think there is a huge trust deficit and that needs to be bridged, it can only be bridged as I said that we have crisis and the country has the propensity and ability to come together," said Kanoria.

"Now, what is our basic thrust is to get investment back on track and unless and until we have investment we are going to perpetuate inflation, we are going to perpetuate the supply side situation so our concentration is to get investment back and our concentration is also to ensure that the government also cuts its coat according to the cloth," he added. (ANI)