Ease of doing business, lots of FDI must to boost investment, says Jaitley
Govt has straightened laws, is trying to make taxation compatible with global regulations
Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said India needs to further ease its business processes to boost domestic and foreign investments.
Terming ‘ease of doing business’ in India as an “important work that is still in progress”, Jaitley also said that the government has been able to straighten several laws and was trying to make taxation systems compatible with global standards.
Addressing the Sydney campus of the SP Jain School of Global Management, Jaitley, who is on a four-day visit to Australia, said the government has been able to make headway in terms of eliminating corruption, and was working on removing discretions of all forms.
Speaking on ‘Reimagining the Indian Economy’, the finance minister said global trade shrinkages have impacted India in terms of uncertainties in stock and currency markets, which Australia itself has also witnessed. “Opening of the Indian economy and sectors such as insurance, railways, defence. among others, has helped us,” Jaitley said.
“In term of ease of doing business, you are measured by the stability of policies, by predictability, by cutting short the time between the decision to make investment and actual implementation,” he said. “You need few approvals and easy approvals.”
In India, the system of getting approvals from multiple authorities could frustrate investors.
“In the competitive world today, not only to attract foreign investors but also persuade domestic investors, we will have to ease our business processes,” he said. “That’s an important work which is still in progress as far as India is concerned”.
On taxation, Jaitley said the government is now working on direct tax systems, where “we want to put disputes behind us.”
“We want people to clean up their tax issues. And therefore, in this budget, I have also suggested various windows of clearing up pending disputes,” he said.
The finance minister also inaugurated the Union Bank of India’s Sydney branch and said the government will provide sufficient funds to recapitalise public sector banks to ensure that they play a significant role in boosting growth. WOOINGINVESTORS Later in the day, Jaitley met New South Wales’ Premier Mike Baird and invited Australian businesses to invest in India, saying the government wants foreign sovereign wealth funds to be part of the National Infrastructure Investment Fund (NIIF), pension and insurance funds.
Stating that India needs a lot of foreign direct investment (FDI), especially in manufacturing and infrastructure sectors, he said state governments are taking keen interest and competing among themselves to attract fund inflows.
Baird, meanwhile, expressed keen interest in investment opportunities in India, particularly in infrastructure. He highlighted the importance of communicating the information to the larger business community in Australia to enable them understand the opportunities available in India.
Baird is slated to visit India during the next Vibrant Gujarat summit in January 2017.