The government will come out with a second stimulus package in the next few days, to spur economic growth in the current fiscal, and is working on another  stimulus plan for 2009-10 to withstand the effects of a further slowdown of the global economy.

Stating this, planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said while the second stimulus plan will be relevant for the current fiscal, implementation of the 2009-10 stimulus plan would be incumbent on the new government that takes office after the elections due next year.

Ahluwalia said the government could still announce its intentions in the `vote-on-account' in Parliament, ahead of the election process.

But, he said, while preparing a fiscal package is important, the main thing is to make sure that expenditure that has already been provided, and the new expenditure, gets done.

The package for this fiscal, which is likely to be announced in the next few days, may include further cuts in key policy rates by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

''We are trying to coordinate a number of different steps. And I hope in the next few days we will be ready to make an announcement,'' Ahluwalia said.

With the slowdown in economic growth and a halving of the rate of inflation to 6.61 per cent from its peak level of 12.91 per cent in August, there was enough scope for a further reduction in RBI rates, Ahluwalia said.

''It is clear at the moment that the economy is growing below its potential and inflation is definitely on its way down. And these factors would suggest that there is a scope,'' he said, adding , ''We should be watching the situation carefully and we should not hesitate to take further steps.''

RBI governor D. Subbarao had a meeting with prime minister Manmohan Singh at his residence on Monday, giving hopes of further rate reduction.

With a number of banks already announcing lower lending and deposit rates with effect from 1 January 2009, a further softening in interest rates seem to be in the offing.

In its first economic stimulus package, the government had, among other things, announced a four per cent across-the-board cut in excise duty and hike in public expenditure in infrastructure projects. It also sought to increase public expenditure by Rs147,000 crore through two supplementary demands for grants, which would be over and above the Rs750,000 crore already provided for in the Budget for 2008-09.