Wednesday, January 11 2006 13:53 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Finance Minister P Chidambaram today (Jan 11,2006)said India was on course to achieving the target of bringing down fiscal and revenue deficits as outlined in the Budget 2005-06.

Addressing newspersons at the Forum of Financial Writers, he said achieving this target was itself creditable and indicates the strengthening of the country's fiscal situation.

The Government has taken a number of steps to achieve high economic growth during 2005, he said.

Disinvestment of non-Navratna companies was also on track, he said, adding that the government was in talks with its various partners on the issue.

Chidambaram said the government had created an environment that is extremely favourable to foreign investment.

"The three major indicators of business confidence and investors confidence rise in investment proposals, increase in non-food credit by over 30 per cent and other indicators such as Sensex, Nifty and ratings given by independent agencies point out that investment climate is favourable,"he said.

Chidambaram said the country has maintained a reasonable rate of growth despite natural disasters such as the Tsunami, the earthquake in the northern region and the spiralling crude oil prices in international markets.

"Another major achievement has been price stability," the Finance Minister added.

He said the regulatory agencies in all sectors such as banking, capital markets, telecom, insurance and electricity have matured and compare with the world's best.

Days ahead of the Union Budget for 2006-07, he said the Government has not withdrawn any reforms measures.

"Major initiatives have been taken in tax reforms, tax administration, national rural employment guarantee programme and other sectors," he said.

"In 2005, the country has witnessed a flood of visitors, tourists as well as big investors in banks, automobiles, information technology and telecom," he said.

Chidambaram said the government has not made any 'major mistakes' and has stayed on course despite being a 'rainbow coalition' of parties with different viewpoints working together.