In order to increase investment and growth, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the government will continue the reforms, with 'single-minded focus', which it failed to pursue in the recent months. He further said that “India cannot afford a change in direction and in these circumstances every state has to contribute”. With a view to attract investors, Jaitley also called upon states to improve ease of doing business stating they are 'smart people' and look for 'stability of policy (and) business friendly ecosystem.'
Among major reforms, the government has not been able to push the Goods and Services Tax ( GST) bill, which got stuck in Rajya Sabha because of stiff opposition from the Congress. While talking about the need to accelerate reforms at all levels in order to push growth, Jaitley said that world was going through an extremely difficult and challenging time and difficulties have spilled over into Indian system also.
Talking about the World Bank lowering global growth forecast to 2.9 per cent, Jaitley said that growth rates of economies across the world are hovering around extremely low figures and because of the integrated economy, what happens in China, what happens in oil prices, impact India’s markets. He also said that the country’s revenue gets impacted when the price regimes are low because nominal GDP gets reduced.
However, Jaitley took comfort from the fact that even under the trying circumstances, 'India continues to remain the fastest growing economy in the world. So India’s 7-7.5 per cent growth rate stands out amongst the larger economies as bright spot among global economy.'
