In today’s world, when many of our competing economies have relatively slowed down; India has a great opportunity ahead, Arun Jaitley, Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs, and Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, has said. “Analysts believe that if we can be consistent in our policy direction, and if we can thus restore the credibility of the Indian economy, a lot of global investment is likely to come our way,” he observed, while speaking at an interaction with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Chennai recently.
R Seshasayee, Chairman,
CII Economic
Growth & Investments
Council & Past President,
CII; Arun Jaitley,
Minister for Finance,
Corporate Affairs and
Information and Broadcasting,
Government
of India and Ravi Sam,
Chairman, CII Tamil
Nadu
The world has choices now, to decide on investment destinations; let us not fritter away the opportunity before us, the Minister urged. “We are not merely a cooperative federalism, but also a competitive federalism, where the states compete for investments. We have a shared national vision for security and foreign policy. Similarly, we require a larger shared national vision on growth and development, even while accommodating ideological differences. Only then can we restore credibility in the Indian economy,” he reasoned.
As for the national priorities, the Minister spoke of progressive reduction of subsidies, transparency in Budgetary process and policy making, expenditure management, industrialisation, housing, higher spend on infrastructure, and also encouragement for Indian companies to manufacture. “There will not be any concealed fiscal deficit. And we are working towards rationalising taxation to make it, as far as possible, non-adversarial. Many of the steps that we take will gradually help the states,” he noted.
The GST (Goods and Services Tax) proposal is getting encouraging response from most people, said the Minister, and assured that no state will lose on account of that reform. “A seamless tax regime, such as what GST will bring in, will lead to higher GDP, and, in the long run, lead to lower taxes, and higher buoyancy for taxation. Both the consuming and manufacturing states will stand to benefit from GST. If ever there is any shortfall in revenues, the states will be compensated for the first 5 years. Let there be no fear of the unknown,” he explained.
With the NITI Aayog having representation from the states, we will see a reduction in the Central schemes, thus making way for more money to the states for designing their own schemes, the Minister mentioned. He drew the attention of the audience to the change in the domestic mood, and the global attitude towards India. “This year is going to be much better than last year, though not a great year. What will give us further boost is that inflation is broadly under control, oil prices are declining, and the process of rate cuts has started.” Lauding the media for the much larger debate on economic issues, the Minister highlighted that the agenda of governance has changed.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, R Seshasayee, Past President, CII and Chairman, CII Economic Growth & Investments Council, spoke of the new chapter that has opened up for Indian industry; with the change of government, a new chapter has ushered in hope, brought in clear vision and is engaging with the people of India and those outside. “The Government has moved rapidly to bring in legislation, where legislation was lacking, as in the case of GST, and land acquisition. It has put in place policies where legislation was there, such as in the areas of FDI in insurance and defence.
The Session was attended by over 200 senior representatives from across industry sectors including Venu Srinivasan, Chairman, TVS Motor Company, K M Mammen, Chairman & Managing Director, MRF Limited, Mallika Srinivasan, Chairman & CEO, TAFE Ltd, B Santhanam, President- Flat Glass, South Asia, Egypt, Malaysia & Managing Director, Saint-Gobain India Ltd, T T Ashok, Managing Director, Taylor Rubber Pvt Ltd and Sano Tosihiko, CEO & Managing Director, Renault Nissan Automotive India Ltd amongst others.
