Budget 2013: Focus will be on fiscal prudence in Budget: Religare MF

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Vetri Subramaniam, CIO of Religare Mutual Fund spoke about outlook for the market ahead of Budget 2013-2014.

Below is a verbatim transcript of the interview: Q: Which way do you think this one is leaning, between fiscal prudence or an impetus on growth and which one do you think the market would rather hear? A: The focus is going to be on fiscal prudence. You have had a Finance Minister (FM) who has travelled far and wide reaching out to investors both in India as well as overseas talking about how he is putting the country back on track in terms of getting the fiscal deficit under control. Clearly one of the key audiences that he has been addressing over the last few months has been the credit rating agencies. So, this Budget has a lot to do with fiscal prudence. Certainly the fiscal deficit numbers are something that he has already gone out on a limb. That is something that we will certainly hold him by. At the same time, all Budgets are one of the few opportunities where FM gets to stand up in parliament and address a very large constituency, not just those of us who are in the market but also the lay people. Therefore in that sense it is always going to have a tinge of politics, which is very different from saying that it will be populist. However, certainly politics has to play a role in delivering that Budget and  therefore you will see the hand of that. As I said, that is a little different from saying that it will be populist. Fiscal prudence is clearly the message that we will expect to see in this Budget.