New Delhi : Reviving economic growth, containing inflation and repairing public finances would be among the top priorities of the new government, India’s new Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Tuesday.
Talking to reporters after taking charge at the North Block office here, Jaitley said the Indian economy is passing through a very challenging time and there is need to re-build confidence of global as well as domestic investors in it.
“I am conscious of the fact that I am taking over at a very challenging time. Particularly, there is a need to rebuild confidence in the Indian economy,” Jaitley said.
“The challenges are very obvious. We have to restore back the pace of growth, contain inflation and obviously concentrate on fiscal consolidation itself,” he added.
India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth fell to a decade’s low of 4.5 percent in the financial year 2012-13 and it is estimated to grow at 4.9 percent in the year ended March 31, 2014, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) data. Inflation remains stubbornly high.
Jaitley said political changes have sent a strong signal to the global as well as domestic investors and it will help rebuild the confidence in the Indian economy.
“The mandate that our government has received has an inbuilt hope in it. Political change itself sends a strong signal to the global community and also the domestic investors,” he said.
In the newly sworn-in National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, Jaitley has turned out to be the most important person after Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Besides finance, Jaitley also holds defence and corporate affairs portfolios.
In the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), the apex decision-making body of the cabinet, Jaitley holds two portfolios – finance and defence. Other two ministers in the CCS, besides the Prime Minister who chairs it, are Rajnath Singh as home minister and Sushma Swaraj as external affairs minister.