By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JUNE 01, 2017: The Union Minster of Finance, Mr Arun Jaitley, today said that after the present NDA Government came to power in May, 2014, it has been able to restore the credibility of the Indian Economy and the Government which was at its lowest ebb due to serious charges of corruption and indecisiveness during the earlier UPA regime. The Finance Minster further said that the three major achievements of the present NDA Government in the last three years include credibility of taking decisions, even difficult decisions, drastic changes in the earlier Governance system which led to corruption, and making the market mechanism as the basis of the Government decision making and eliminating the Government discretions in the process of decision making and overall governance.

The Union Finance Minister was making his Opening Remarks at a Press Conference in the national capital today organized to highlight the key initiatives and achievements of the different Departments of the Ministry of Finance & Defence in the last three years i.e. 2014-15 to 2016-17.

Speaking further on the occasion, Mr Jaitley said that another major contribution of the present Government was clear direction in decision making, creating an atmosphere for the growth of the economy at large so that it is ensured that the benefits of the growth accrue to the poor and underprivileged section of society in particular. Another major achievement of the present Government was Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Reforms as a result of which India was the largest recipient of FDI in the world, especially in the last two years i.e., 2015-16 and 2016-17. The Finance Minister said that despite the low private investment, FDI along with public investment played an important role in investment cycle. The Finance Minister said that the present Central Government also took special care to strengthen the State Governments by allocating more funds to them as per the recommendations of 14 th Finance Commission.

The Union Minister further said that the present NDA Government created a federal institution (GST Council) based on federal taxation i.e. Goods and Services Tax (GST) which is now at the last stage of its implementation. Mr Jaitley said that this will be a historical indirect tax reform which will bring transparency, simplicity and efficiency in the tax administration. Mr Jaitley said that the present Government also implemented JAM (Jandhan, Aadhar Mobile) Trinity based financial inclusion system under which a law relating to Aadhar was enacted so that resources are optimally utilised by plugging the leakages and eliminating the underserved category of beneficiaries.