Spelling out his New Year resolution, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said public and private investment in infrastructure and manufacturing sector will be encouraged to overcome challenges facing the Indian economy.
"Infrastructural spending has to be stepped up. Manufacturing sector has to be given a major push. This has to be done both through encouraging public and private investment. This is our resolve for the upcoming year," he said on New Year's eve Facebook post titled "2014 – The Year of Challenges and Reforms".
Emphasising that the NDA government has undertaken "more reform" oriented measures than any Government in recent memory, Jaitley said that "despite major reforms steps taken", there are still challenges which the Indian economy faces. "The 2014 general election results brought in an air of freshness. After 30 years, the Indian electorate gave a majority to a single party in the Lok Sabha.
"The Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to be decisive and firm. The popular expectation was that the Government would usher in an era of reforms and growth," he said, while listing out major steps taken by the government since it came to power about seven months back.
The Finance Minister said 2014 was one of the most challenging years for India.
For two consecutive years, he said, the GDP growth was sub 5 per cent, employment generation declined, the revenue buoyancy was low and India had become investment starved. The reform measures he listed, include "national consensus" and introduction of a bill for GST, liberalisation of FDI norms, ordinance to amend the land acquisition law, "clearing up the mess" in the coal and power sector, and deregulation of diesel prices.
Amending the provisions of the Companies Act to add to the ease of doing business, banking sectors reforms, tax rebates, launching flagship programmes such as Swachch Bharat Abhiyan and Digital India are some of the other steps of the new government listed by Jaitley.
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