International bodies are willing to fund pending infrastructure development projects in the country, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday.

Jaitley was responding to a question put out by Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, over video-conference at the Mumbai Next programme. Ambani had asked how the government plans to afford major infrastructure projects planned for Mumbai, one of the world's largest cities.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gestures during the session 'India's Next Decade' in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos January 23, 2015.Reuters

The FM remarked that infrastructure development should see participation from public spending and domestic savings, read BusinessLine.

Cut Expenditure

Jaitley also hinted at further spending cuts in an attempt to rationalise expenditure, adding that he does not believe in living on borrowed money.

"We're trying to rationalise expenditure as far as the government is concerned because we do not want the government to live on borrowed money indefinitely," Finance Minister said.

Jaitley said he did not believe in the idea of spending beyond one's means and leaving the debt repayment to the next generation.

Stable Tax Regime

The Finance Minister would be presenting his first full budget on 28 February.

Jaitley hinted that a stable tax regime would be in place, to ensure 'no unfair effort' is made by the states or the Centre, in a bid to mop up additional revenue.

He critiqued that the momentum of economic liberalisation from 1991 to 2004 was squandered by the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government.

Reforms

Budget 2015 would present the roadmap of reforms for power, energy, ports and railways sector, which would see a higher degree of priority with increased public investment to be channelled to these sectors, read the article.

Jaitley has been viciously cutting down on any extra expenditure, to limit the fiscal deficit to the targeted 4.1% of the GDP.