Arun Jaitley further said the capital infusion would be accompanied by series of banking reforms which would be spelled out in the next few months. (IE)
Following projection of massive GDP growth by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday took to Twitter and hinted the growth was a mockery. Indicating his negative expectations in terms of actual result, Rahul Gandhi said,”Dear Mr. Jaitley, May the Farce be with you.” This is a different take from the popular Star Wars films in which the original dialogue went like this: ‘May the force be with you’. It is a positive statement that has been twisted totally by Gandhi to taunt Jaitley. Addressing a press conference, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday stated that India has been the fastest growing major economy for the last three years and that the attempt is to maintain high growth rate in coming years. Jaitley presented an optimistic picture of the state of the economy, insisting that the Indian economy remains on a strong wicket with sound macro-economic fundamentals. Jaitley said the government has decided on the steps necessary to sustain growth momentum. Stressing on the need to increase public investment, the Finance Minister said that the public sector banks have an adequate lending capacity after demonetization.
Dear Mr. Jaitley, May the Farce be with you. pic.twitter.com/Dxb5jFCaEa
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) October 25, 2017
Jaitley further said the capital infusion would be accompanied by series of banking reforms which would be spelled out in the next few months. Taking potshots at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for describing GST as ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’, Jaitley said those who are used to monumental scams in 2G spectrum and coal allocation cases will have objections to a legitimate tax.
Meanwhile, Economic Affairs Secretary S C Garg, in a presentation made at the briefing, said inflation has consistently come down since 2014 and will not cross 4 percent this fiscal. He also pointed out that current account deficit will be less than 2 percent this year and that the foreign exchange reserves have crossed USD 400 billion. Commenting on fiscal deficit, Garg said the government is committed to sticking to the target of 3.2 percent of GDP for the current fiscal but added that a review would be done in December.
Claiming that the real GDP growth average is 7.5 percent in last three years, Garg said transformational reforms have been another part of the India growth story. Pointing out that the GDP growth slowdown has bottomed out and the economy is turning around, Garg said the International Monetary Fund had recently projected that the country would achieve an 8 percent growth rate soon.
