Finance Minister Arun Jaitley expects a surge in investments in the coming days due to a “positive mood” generated by several steps taken by the NDA Government in the last seven months.
Speaking at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, Jaitley said the reverse flow of capital seen during the last three to four years had stopped due to some corrective measures taken by the Government and now it was time for investments to come in. Indian and foreign firms have committed to invest Rs25 lakh crores, he said.
Promising quick decisions and a stable tax regime, Jaitley assured investors that “ease of doing business” was not just a slogan for the Government but a commitment. He credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decisive leadership for bringing stability to the country’s policy regime, saying that the Prime Minister (PM) has to have “the last word” in a democracy.
He added that the Government would be able to spend more on infrastructure and incentivise expenditure in manufacturing to help boost growth and create more jobs.
“In order to attract investment, you should have stability in policies, your direction must be clear and the pace of moving in that direction must be reasonably quick,” he said. Jaitley regretted that his Government was being criticised for taking quick decisions through Ordinance.
“The biggest criticism in the last one month is for the fact that we have taken decisions so quickly. We are told that we should have waited till the cows come home, till the Opposition decided to allow the Rajya Sabha to function. Why are you resorting to a faster means of taking decisionsIJ That’s mean criticism,” Jaitley said.
Quick decisions in the right direction were intended to convey a message to global investors that India cannot stop growing “if one House of Parliament takes some time to settle down and start functioning,” he added.