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FM Arun Jaitley in speech today, on 'Make in India – the New Deal' hosted by CII and the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York, said that India has its 'hands full' in trying to bring about structural changes and implementing key reforms to boost economic growth in India. FM said, "There is a method in each one of the steps we are taking. We are conscious of our responsibilities." Check out here what FM Arun Jaitley address highlighted: (PTI)
1. Arun Jaitley: There has been 'significant transformation' in India and the country is 'better off' than it was a few years ago. What was being referred to as policy paralysis is now referred to as the bright spot. The government took decisions in its initial years to open up FDI in segments like defence, railways, real estate and food processing and simplified procedures so that investments become more attractive. Another 'important advantage' that has taken place is 'decisiveness' despite the noise of democracy. When the decisions by the executive are required, India has now recently shown a tendency to decide quickly. Decisions don't hang around for a long period of time. (PTI) -
2. Arun Jaitley: The other 'great transformation' that has taken place in the country, is that there was a 'great stigma' that decision-making was not transparent in India and 'where there could be some decisions taken for collateral reasons. That is all something that belongs to the past now. Government discretion in allocation of resources have virtually been completely eliminated and replaced by a market mechanism. That has also added to the credibility of the decision making process in India. (PTI)
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3. Arun Jaitley: On infrastructure development, there are 233 national highways under construction and expenditure on rural roads now is three times than what India was spending earlier. In railways also, the target is to develop 400 railways stations in India over the next 2-3 years and emphasis is being given on developing regional airports. In rural areas also, focus is being given to irrigation and electrification programmes. The process of reforms when added to these existing opportunities open up the economy for investment, allows people to invest in sectors like the railways, defence, food processing that otherwise had not been encouraged in the past provides a great opportunity. Each one of these steps (by NDA govt) is now bringing structural changes, bringing in more investment, better amenities in the rural areas, more infrastructure, creating the groundwork for the Indian economy itself to now concentrate on manufacturing. (PTI)
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Arun Jaitley hopeful of GST passage in monsoon session: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday expressed confidence that the much delayed Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill will be passed in the monsoon session, saying "almost every political party" is supporting it. Speaking at 'The Future of Asia' Conference organised by Nikkei Inc, he said the GST Bill — which creates a single national sales tax to replace several state and central levies — has already been approved by the Lok Sabha or Lower House of Parliament and is slated to come up in the Upper House where the government doesn't have a majority. (AP)
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5. Arun Jaitley: The world at the moment faces serious challenges and India cannot 'immune' itself from most of these challenges. Notwithstanding that we have consistently even in the slowdown environment grown by about 7 per cent, 7.2 per last year, 7.6 this fiscal which ended a few days ago and hopefully this year we could improve on that data. (AP)
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4. 7th Pay Commission: “Annual burden on exchequer of the 7th pay commission award would be Rs 1.02 lakh crore – estimated to cost Rs 1.14 trillion rupees ($16.88 billion) in 2016/17,” Arun Jaitley. (AP)
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7. Arun Jaitley: The country still requires a lot of structural changes and the government has taken steps to ease processes, make the business environment easier and bring in greater transparency into the system. Hope the bankruptcy law would be approved over the next few weeks; the government 'is in the final stages' of passing a law that deals with commercial indebtedness. The government has also changed arbitration laws, amended some of the 'onerous provisions' of the Companies Act and will bring down corporate tax to 25 per cent over the next couple of years. (AP)
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2. 7th Pay Commission: “Entry level pay increased from Rs 7,000 to Rs 18,000 per month,” said Arun Jaitley. (PTI)
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9. Arun Jaitley: A good monsoon in turn will also improve upon domestic demand. And if a series of these factors within the country takes place, notwithstanding the slowdown of exports which is essentially on account of global slowdown, we are capable of improving upon our present growth figures which last year seems to have been at around 7.6 per cent. (AP)
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3. 7th Pay Commission: “Govt to set up various expert groups to decide on allowances,” said Arun Jaitley. (AP)
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