Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on One Year of Narendra Modi Government: Highlights

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today addressed the media on first anniversary of the Narendra Modi government where he said that the quick decision-making in the face of obstructionism was a hallmark of his government.

Here are the highlights of Mr Jaitley's press conference:
 

• This 1 year shows the direction in which this government is working under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi
• Not only in India, but in the entire world, the respect for India and the PM Modi has increased
• The PM has visited 18 countries and India has been able to achieve a unique place
• In Iraq, Maldives and Nepal when there was trouble, India left its mark through its diplomacy and foreign policy
• India has occupied a pre-eminent place in the global arena
• Initiatives undertaken in sectors such as power, coal and mining are noteworthy; they show a transparent model for reforms
• There was a general environment of gloom a year ago. That has been replaced by hope and excitement.
• The restlessness is to grow even faster which is the real potential of India
• Decisiveness, even in the face of obstructionism, has been a hallmark of this government
• Expansion of space in Jammu and Kashmir for mainstream political parties is a major achievement for the nation
• Decisions are being taken in the direction which augment growth and promote development
• There must be transparency in governance
• Governance should be on the basis of principles and not personalities
• People felt that the decision making process of government of India was so controversial and discretionary that even investors were prosecuted. That air has been cleared by the transparency of this government.
• We are in the process of creating history by bringing about the most important indirect tax reform - the GST
• High taxation rates are never investor or economy friendly
• The government has taken measures to bring direct taxation rates to globally competitive levels
• We are working in the direction of resolving legacy issues plaguing taxation
  There is great cohesiveness in the government
• A very important highlight of this government has been to give a corruption-free administration to this country
• Another important feature of this government has been to strengthen the federal structure of India
• Overwhelming support of regional parties is directly attributable to the attitude of the central government towards the state
• The NITI Aayog has been constituted as an important pillar of the government's initiative to strengthen federalism
• Management of the fiscal deficit and quality of that deficit are equally important
• The abuse of investigative agencies is now a thing of the past
• We have now entered the second stage where the capacity to spend the money must increase
• Our priorities in the next session of Parliament will be the passage of GST and Land bills
• Government has a clear roadmap for the coming year
• Important parametres like fiscal and current account deficits, growth rate, revenue figures, etc have stabilised.
• The disinvestment proceeds in the last year has been the largest ever in a single year
• Laws to squeeze black money has been introduced in Parliament
• We are one of the fastest growing economies of the world but we are not satisfied with this
• The banking sector was under a lot of pressure due to the global slowdown, we have professionalised appointments to bank boards
• Will continue to squeeze black money generation by passing more legislation in coming year
• This has shown results by way of reduction in Non-Performing Assets. The NPAs have started coming down in the quarter that ended in March.
• In the coming years, government will increase spending in irrigation and rural infrastructure
• The new insurance schemes launched by the Government have reached 7.5 crore people in a few weeks
• The insurance schemes will bring the benefits of insurance to the common man
• India is an unpensioned society, only 11 % have pension... government has tried to increase this number
• MUDRA Bank will bring finance to 5.7 crore small entrepreneurs
• Every department has been working overtime in this last one year. It has been a directional year and direction at a very fast pace.
• Government will make all endeavor to keep supporting legislations and IT support network to implement GST from April 1, 2016
• Government will make very effort to ensure there is no delay in implementation of GST
• Proposals which have been cleared by the Cabinet are known to you. I have got umpteen proposals of over Rs 50,000 crore
• Target of all is more then Rs 69,000 crore
• Some ministries have approached me... Disinvestment secretary will be looking after that
• Mr Jaitley takes a dig at Rahul Gandhi: Going for vacation for 55 days is one kind of a foreign trip and state visits representing the country are completely different
• 2013 land bill had impediments to growth of rural infrastructure and we have sought to remove those in 2015
• Rupee should be market-determined, it should find its own level and its real strength should be reflected
• 18% impact of oil prices coming down in the export basket also. Global slowdown also has a direct impact on exports
• India has a potential to touch double digit growth
• There are competing economies in the world which are not doing so well. We can be natural recipients of a lot of international funds
• When we obstruct the passage of laws, we must realise it is the journey to 10% growth we are obstructing
• The principal opposition party has positioned itself against growth and development; they must reconsider their position
• Good governance always has to blended with clever politics and we are conscious of this
• We are conscious of even our past experiences and we have learnt from them
• The country's expectation from the government were practical, those from the Opposition have turned out to be impractical
• We are in the business of governance, our plate is full for the next 3 years  with the reform agenda
• The AIADMK is the only political party that has some reservations on the GST. I have assure Tamil Nadu that it will not lose a single rupee and if it does, the central government will make good those losses. Our assessment is even Tamil Nadu will gain from implementation of GST.
• UPA government's economic policy initially wasn't clear and what led to their fall was crony capitalism
• We are reforming and liberalising but there is no place for crony capitalism
• This government is pro-growth and development. Policy will be one of arm's length distance from individual business.
• This government has reduced oil prices 11-12 times and hiked 3-4 times - that is market linked. We have increased excise thrice and once the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) benefitted from that.