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

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.

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Election manifesto of the Congress -- economic promises

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