Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday contended that India has an opportunity to touch nine per cent growth and made a fresh bid to end the deadlock on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill a
Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday contended that India has an opportunity to touch nine per cent growth and made a fresh bid to end the deadlock on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill as he reached out to the Congress, asking it to think about the “legacy” it would be leaving behind by opposing it.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Mr Jaitley praised West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for openly supporting GST and appealed to those opposing it that a message should not go to the world that Parliament in India is being an “obstruction”.
He said India is being seen as a “bright spot” when other major economies have slowed down and this opportunity to realise the full growth potential should be seized.
“It is not difficult for India to grow at 8-9 per cent. It is not impossible,” Mr Jaitley said in the Lok Sabha while replying to a debate on the second batch of supplementary demand for grants of Rs 56,256 crore which was later approved.
He noted that the best solution to poverty eradication is enabling the country to grow faster which will generate jobs and increase resources of the government.
He added that the GST bill, which aims at reforming the direct taxation system in the country, can push the country’s growth by one and one-and-a-half per cent.
Reaching out to the main Opposition party, which is opposing the bill that is pending in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Jaitley said, “I would urge the current leadership of the Congress Party also to look at history and the legacy they want to leave behind. Support these measures so that we are able to grow faster. We have more money to get rid of poverty much faster.”
He noted that GST was first brought by the previous Congress-led government and was “unquestionably” the “collective wisdom of everybody. But today they oppose.”
Mr Jaitley, who spoke in the absence of the Congress, which was boycotting the House over alleged “vendetta politics”, said he was conveying the message to the main Opposition party through the Chair.
He hoped that the growth in the current year would be 7-7.5 per cent and fiscal deficit would be restricted to 3.9 per cent of the GDP with quality “much superior” than the previous government.
