Structural changes have had transient impact, but see growth resuming soon: FM Jaitley

An upward trajectory is being projected for growth from the current quarter and the figures will keep improving in the next few years, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told CNBC TV-18.

In the context of the recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections and growth challenges going ahead for the Indian economy, Jaitley said, "In the larger management of an economy, you don't look at one quarter, you look at the pattern across a period".

Jaitley, who is on a week-long visit of the United States, said the economy is doing reasonably well, but can do much better. Important structural changes can have a transient impact, which they have had but all indications are that things are improving and will improve, he added.

He explained that after implementing GST, a major transformational change, you review the market situation daily and make the required changes.

In the previous meeting, two very important decisions were taken in relation to exporters, who are certainly entitled to quicker refunds, and one cannot block their capital. And secondly, one had to reduce the compliance burden on the small and medium scale, he added.

"To incentivise people to get into the GST net you had to offer an attractive composition scheme, that's what we have done," Jaitley said.

Over 134-140 commodities and services we brought down from 28 percent category to 18 or 12 percent. This is because, originally, they were taxed both excise, VAT and higher taxes. Thus, some goods were moved to the 28 percent category to bring revenue neutrality.

On India's fiscal deficit he said, "I inherited an unacceptable level of fiscal deficit and therefore, for the last three years, we have had a good glide path and we continue on a glide path".

However, he added the sharpness of the glide is flexible.

On the country's fiscal stimulus, Jaitley said the government will respond to the challenging situations.

He mentioned the status of various sectors in the economy. He said the manufacturing growth dipped in one quarter because of destocking. In the same quarter, the services sector went up.

Thereafter, all sectors indicate the growth has gone up. The automobile vehicles sales seem to have increased, the PMI for both manufacturing and services is moving up, there is an upward trend in the global growth figures, he added.

Everybody wants faster growth and as somebody in-charge of that department, we want faster growth. There is a challenge and it would be incorrect for anybody to interpret a challenge to the economic situation as some kind of a crisis, he said.