Arun Jaitley stood up to present the final budget of the Modi governments 5 year term in the Parliament. His initial remarks in his budget speech are as below :
- Four years ago we pledged to the people of India to give to this nation an honest and clean, transparent government. We promised a leadership capable of taking difficult decisions and restore strong performance of the Indian economy.
- We promised to reduce poverty, expedite infrastructure creation and build a strong, confident and new India
- When our government took over our country was considered to be a part of fragile five. A nation suffering from policy paralysis and corruption. We have decisively reversed this.
- The government led by PM Shri Narendra Modi has successfully in implementing a series of fundamental structural reforms. With the result , India stands out as amongst the fastest growing economies in the world.
The Finance Minister said that the journey has been challenging and rewarding. ‘As a result of this FDI has increased’, he said. He also mentioned that the ease of doing business has improved.
The FM highlighted that the natural resources were being allocated transparently. He said that the benefits to poor has been targeted better with the use of digital technology. Demonetisation has reduced the cash currency in circulation.
‘There is a premium on honesty’ he said.
The insolvency and bankruptcy code had reshaped the lender and debtor relations as per the FM. Jaitley said that these reforms would aid growth in future. Other important remarks of finance minister are :
- India is now a $2.5 trillion economy, 7th largest in the world.
- India is expected to become the 5th largest economy very soon, the finance minister informed the house.
- GDP growth of 6.3% in second quarter signal a turnaround in the economy. We expect to grow 7.2 to 7.5% in the second half (of this fiscal).
- Manufacturing has returned to returned growth. Service have also resumed high growth in excess of 8 % .
- Exports are expected grow at rate 15% in 2017 -18.
“We are now firmly on course to achieve a high growth of 8% plus.”, said an optimistic Arun Jaitley.
