Prime minister Manmohan Singh endorsed the need to completely deregulate petroleum prices, lift subsidies, curb expenditure and enforce strict fiscal discipline, but refused to draw himself into achieving these objectives within a pre-determined timeframe.

He also conceded the larger need for free flow of commodities across borders to tame global price rise, but said concerns of domestic politics would prevail in enforcing such a decision.

Speaking to Indian media at the conclusion of the two-day summit of heads of government of G20 leaders, Singh said he was first and foremost in the business of politics, and it was expected of him to uphold the priorities of citizens in order to stay in business. “We have to be politicians before becoming statesmen to stay in power,” said Singh, an economist who has dramatically metamorphosed into a hard-nosed politician as prime minister in the UPA government.

Asked if he saw merit in decontrol of petrol prices, Singh nodded in the affirmative. “I attach great importance to the task of fiscal consolidation. We cannot live beyond our means and have to recognise that money does not grow on trees,” Singh said here when asked if he had a similar approach at home while advising the European Union to observe strict fiscal discipline.

Singh said the 6.4 per cent limit on fiscal deficit imposed in the budget for the current financial year would have to be respected and expenditure flows would have to be balanced. “If we have to cut certain expenditures and subsidies, those will have to be respected, even while looking as disinvestments as a revenue mobilisation measure.”

However, Singh said that what the government did at a certain point of time would necessarily have to be a matter of political expediency.

Singh also said that rising food prices at home were a matter of concern, but high prices were reflected in the prices of secondary and tertiary commodities like pulses, fruits, vegetables, meat and poultry, and not in primary articles like rice and wheat.

Such price rises were fuelled by increasing consumption that should be viewed as signs of growing prosperity.

Singh said that while national income has been growing at 8 per cent per annum, population had been growing at 1.6 per cent, reflecting a rise in per capita income by 3 per cent to 4 per cent, fuelling demand for consumption.

Asked about concerns regarding black money parked by Indians abroad, Singh said he was no astrologer to predict when and how such money could be brought back to India or the quantum of funds stashed abroad. “I really don’t know the magnitude of the so-called black money; we don’t have a foolproof mechanism to bring this money back to India.

He said bringing back black money into the country was dependent on cooperation of foreign governments.

He said the context of outward unaccounted for remittances by Indians was fast losing meaning as India has now emerged as a surplus economy and it no longer makes sense for Indians to park money abroad. “We have to create the requisite environment to retain peoples’ surplus incomes at home,” Singh said.