New Delhi: Amidst prospects of robust economic growth this year, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh today (Nov 23) hinted at a soft and growth-oriented Budget that would improve quality of life through reforms and ensure food security to the masses.

Promising to keep price level low with a benign inflation of less than 4.0 per cent, Singh said the attempt would be to increase the spending power of the people while assisting the poor through food subsidies.

"I want countrymen to go and spend. The more they spend, the greater will be the production and income," he said referring to the multiplier effect on GDP (gross domestic product) growth through higher demand.

He stressed on reforms as it was the "route" to attain higher growth of 6-7 per cent in this decade or even higher.

"The Indian economy is fast approaching a point of criticality. I do not know when it will happen but it will happen very soon. When it happens, growth in India will be explosive," he said.

Singh, however, identified fiscal deficit as an area of concern which continued to "worry" him.

"But last fiscal the deficit was arrested from its ascending trend and this effort would continue."

Admitting that there was some setback to reforms, especially in disinvestment after the Supreme Court judgement on Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), he said such things do happen in Democracy but the Government was committed to the sell-off process and move away from those public sector enterprises which were a "drag" on the economy.

PTI