Eyeing 10% growth to UPA bashing: 10 takeaways from Arun Jaitley's comments in US

Finance Minister Jaitley began a 10-day trip to the US yesterday. He is expected to meet top CEOs, investors and address think-tanks during his visit. According to the minister, he is in the US “really to be in dialogue with a larger body of investors because the more the investment in India, the more it helps us in our growth process”. He participated in a discussion organised by the think tank Council on Foreign Relations. President of investment firm Warburg Pincus and former US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner were also present at the event. Here are 10 takeaways from his US trip so far: 1) Speeding up reforms: Finance minister Arun Jaitley has assured the global investors that efforts are being made to allay their concerns on expediting reform process, tax regime and policy stability by the Narendra Modi government. 2) Investors excited: He is also excited about the response he is getting from the investor community. “The predominant reaction is that there is a lot of excitement and a lot of buzz about India. There is a lot of sense of satisfaction with regard to how the reform process has phased out in the last one year. Investors are certainly looking forward at India in order to make large amount of investments in India,” Jaitley told PTI after visiting the New York Stock Exchange here. [caption id=“attachment_2303066” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Arun Jaitley[/caption] 3) Tax terrorism: Jaitley also admitted that there are concerns about the tax regime in India, which has in recent times resulted in considerable heartburn among foreign institutional investors. 4) Excessive judicial interference: He said “excessive interference” by the judiciary in commercial arbitration is not an investor friendly approach because it adds costs to Indian companies. He also said the cabinet is considering changes in law to deal with that. “Some of the interventionist judgments of the courts have been examined by the government and by the Law Commission in India and, therefore, changes in our own dispute redressal law have been suggested. Those changes are now before the cabinet and (will) hopefully nullify the impact of those judgments so that domestic tribunals or agreed tribunals can work on their own terms,” he has been quoted as saying in an IANS report. 5) Higher growth achievable: Jaitley said said there are economic reforms in the pipeline which can push the country’s economic growth rate above the current 7-7.5 percent range. “Neither the government, nor the people, nor the industry whose representatives, some of whom are here, nobody is very excited about a 7-7.5 percent growth rate in India,” Jaitley said during the discussion with Geithner. At another discussion organised by American Enterprise Institute, a top US think tank, he exuded confidence that India has potential to grow 10 percent and that it is achievable. “It is important that we reach that target, but it is more important that we sustain it for a couple of years,” he was quoted as saying in a PTI report. 6) Critical years ahead: He said the next two-three years are going to be very critical for the reforms. “Having covered this distance, the next two-three years are going to be very critical because the series of reform steps, which are in the pipeline, are all to be implemented," he said. 7) Problem areas identified: He assured that the government has identified the problem areas in the reform path. “I think one by one as we go resolving most of them, hopefully we should reach what our destination targets are,” he has been quoted as saying. 8) Again UPA-bashing: The minister, however, continued the UPA bashing, which has not almost become a norm for the NDA who go on trip aborad. “The last few years we lost the way once again. The reason why we lost way (is that) in terms of political administration and in terms of policy, we went wrong. In terms of political administration, within the government structure the Prime Minister never had the last word, authorities were outside the government structure — the kind that could happen in a communist state. Devoid of that political authority, decision making came to a standstill. The Prime Minister did not have the last word and there were serious apprehensions that decisions were being taken or not taken for the wrong reasons,” he has been quoted as saying in a PTI report. 9) Run faster on GST: The Rajya Sabha has referred the Goods and Services Tax Bill a committee. He said this has shortened the windo of time required for the implementation of the key tax reform. “I now have to run faster to in order to catch up. If nothing unusual happens, hopefully I make it. So I am conscious of the time constraint,” he said. April 2016 is the deadline for the implementation of GST. 10) Gradual opening up of sectors: When asked if more sectors will be opened up for higher stakes of FDI, Jaitley said the government has reviewed FDI “in favour of opening out”. “If you would expect these sectoral caps to immediately go up in all sectors, may be not but gradually that is the movement in that direction,” he has been quoted as saying. With inputs from agencies