Striving for delivery system benefiting 'last man': Jayant Sinha

Union Minister of State Jayant Sinha, while outlining the priorities of the Centre, said that steps were in line that can bring smile of the faces of millions, especially those residing in the backward States like Jharkhand.

“The notion sabka saath, sabka vikas has been our primary objective since the beginning and public finance management should fulfil the same goal.

Whatever we do should benefit the last man of the society and give them means to improve their lives themselves. We believe in cooperative federalism and wish to strengthen the state governments, only then we can have a responsive government working for the people at local level by strengthening the state governments,” Sinha said addressing workshop on Principle and Practices in Parliamentary Democracy and Management of Public Finance on Sunday.

MlAs of the State, along with economists, gathered at SKIPA to deliberate upon the issue of public finance management. The Minister of State for Finance in his closing remarks also elaborating the steps and policies to ensure efficient public finance management in India and Jharkhand.

“The economy was in dire straits when we came into power in May 2014 but has improved substantially within a year. The numbers related to Indian economy however leave much to be desired. Fiscal deficit of `5.5 lakh crore presents a gloomy picture. Out of its total expenditure, the Central Government is paying `4.5 lakh crores as interest for the national debt, which is quite high when compared to other developing countries,” said Sinha.

He further underlined the benefits from the implementation of GST from 1 April, 2016, which would push states share in the service tax collection as well and would be especially beneficial to Jharkhand. “As the state posses coal resources, the service tax on it will add to its revenue,” he explained.

Sinha said that crisis like situation had put the Central government to a shortage of monetary resources. “low tax collection in the country has not been a great help either. Tax-To-GDP ratio is a mere 10% which is half of what we see in countries like China, Nigeria, Indonesia, etc. To tackle this, we have consolidated the macroeconomic parameters which will help in increasing the tax-To-GDP ratio, giving us required resources.”

Sinha emphasised on strengthening the delivery system of the government to people. He encouraged the gathered MlAs to develop the basis amenities too. “Recently, with Jan-Dhan Yojna and DBTl, we are trying to cut the middle man and reach directly to the common man with our projects. We are moving towards a time where even those belonging to the lower strata of the society can have access to mobile banking and cashless payment from digital means will a common practice,” he added.

Talking about policy modification for the State, Saibal Gupta, eminent economist and Secretary of the Asian Development Research Institute, said there was need for foundation course so that people representatives can get detailed information about the problems prevalent in their constituencies. “We also need to develop values in order to develop the state,” said Saibal Gupta.