Concerned over the prevailing economic slowdown in the country, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has asserted that fiscal disciplining is required to put the economy of the country back on track as India has witnessed two successive years of sub-five percent growth. Indian economy’s growth slowed down to decade low at 4.5 percent in FY13 and 4.7 percent in FY14.
Finance Minister further stated that present situation of the Indian economy is challenging and factors like high interest rates, rising inflation, low investments and slow execution of infrastructure projects are impeding the business sentiments in the country. Therefore, there is a need to move towards an era of fiscal discipline with objective to reduce fiscal deficit, contain inflation and improve growth rate.
By adding further, Finance Minister highlighted that it has now become imperative to take fiscal decisions. However, in the short run, such measures may not go down well with general opinions, but will yielded results in the subsequent years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also warned of ‘tough decisions’ over the next couple of years to improve the country's financial health.