Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has expressed his concern over slow growth of manufacturing sector and promised to step up public spending on infrastructure, ease entry barriers for overseas investors and push Goods and Services Tax (GST) to boost economic expansion. The Minister said that while the agriculture and services sectors have been doing well, “manufacturing is a challenge” and the government is trying to resolve the 'legacy' issues hampering development of infrastructure sector.
The minister further stated that our manufacturing sector is challenging and it is here that we have to actually invent the key engine of growth and concentration therefore is on 'Make in India', ability to try and device various methods of financing infrastructure. He expressed the hope that the constitutional amendment bill to roll out the GST, new indirect tax regime, would be passed in the next leg of the budget session beginning on April 20.
FM stressed that the government was committed to giving a push to infrastructure development, as in the Finance Bill, there was a proposal to pass on a substantial part in terms of cess for highway authorities. He added that with liquidity in the hands of highway authority, “incomplete projects can also be assisted by them through some fund mechanism.” Jaitley also pitched for a low interest rate regime and expressed the hope that RBI would reduce the interest rate which will give a boost to the manufacturing sector, he also defended the land acquisition bill saying it would benefit the rural India by promoting industrial activity in non-urban centres.
