With an aim to boost domestic economic growth, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has asserted that the government is committed to take more reforms measures going forward to take India back to its potential economic growth rate of 8%.
Finance Minister highlighted that there is high probability of passage of key bills like Goods and Services Tax (GST) and changes in the land acquisition law in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament. Implementation of GST, land acquisition bill coupled with auction of non-coal minerals and elimination of non-deserving sections from subsidy net will create an environment of high economic growth in the country. Indian economy grew at 5.3% in July-September quarter of 2014-15 as against 5.7% in the previous quarter. Highlighting that 5.3% second-quarter GDP expansion is on estimated lines, Finance Ministry expects the economy to record a growth rate of 5.4-5.9% this fiscal.
After registering an average growth rate of 8% during FY08-FY12, Indian economic growth had slowed down to below 5% over the last two financial years. The factors like high interest rate and stubborn inflation, low investments and slow execution of infrastructure projects have impacted country’s economy growth. However, Indian economy has shown signs of nascent recovery and grew by 5.5% during the first half (April-September) of this fiscal as compared to 4.9% in the same period in 2013-14.