With the new Government focusing its efforts to generate more jobs and reduce inflation, the new Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha was hopeful of 6 per cent GDP growth in 2015-15 period.
“We are expecting the growth to pick up and be on the accelerating trajectory. Hopefully we will cross 6 - 6.5 per cent next year,” Sinha told reporters soon after taking charge.
Sinha further added that the economy will return to 7-8 per cent sustainable growth trajectory in the coming years. The economic growth slumped to 4.7 per cent in 2013-14 and is estimated to be between 5.4-5.9 per cent in current fiscal.
The 51-year old Sinha, an IIT-Delhi and Harvard alumnus, whose father Yashwant Sinha served as Finance Minister in the earlier NDA government, was among the 21 ministers who took oath on Sunday at Rashtrapati Bhawan. Sinha took charge at a time when the Ministry is preparing the Budget for 2015-16. Sinha also expressed hope that the government will be able to push the Insurance Bill and the Constitutional amendment bill on Goods and Services Tax (GST) during the Winter session of Parliament beginning November 24.
Referring to the Insurance laws Amendment Bill, which seeks to raise FDI cap in the sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent, he said: “when it comes to Parliament we are confident that we will get the support that we require”. As regards GST, Sinha said: “that itself has gone through years and years of preparation and consensus building ... We are sure will be able to show some positive results in this session”.
On fiscal situation, he said, it was well in hand and the government is monitoring the situation very closely with respect to tax collections. Referring to the priorities of the government, he said they have already been articulated by the Prime minister and the Finance Minister.
“First, creating jobs is very important for us and for the economy. The second area that we have emphasised and we have done well on is obviously managing inflation and price rise, which has been a major election issue and I think we have done remarkably well on that,” Sinha said, adding it was necessary to get the investment cycle moving. Sinha’s career has seen him work as an investment fund manager and management consultant. He was once a partner at McKinsey.