Jaitley outlines Modi government's five-year achievements

New Delhi, Feb 1: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is undergoing medical treatment in New York, on Friday lauded the Interim Budget 2019-20 presented by Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal.

He complimented Goyal for delivering an excellent pro-farmer, pro-poor budget which will also strengthen the purchasing power of middle class.

Jaitley said the Interim Budget presented by Piyush Goyal today marks a high point in the policy directions that the Government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given to this nation.

He, however, chose the occasion to outline the achievements of Modi government during last five years.

"The political thrust of the past five years both through budgetary outlays, tax policy and legislative and administrative steps have been to create a Government which is decisive, compassionate and clean, " Jaitley said in a Facebook post.

On Reforms, he said, "Reforms have been undertaken with the idea of enhancing growth and the benefits of high growth have gone predominantly to the poor, the rural and the farm sector and infrastructure creation."

He added, "The major reforms undertaken by the Government involved significant steps like the GST, elimination of human interface in both the Direct and Indirect Taxes, the lowering of both Direct and Indirect Taxes and the expansion of the tax base."

Talking about the state of Indian economy, Jaitley said, "The average fiscal deficit in the past five years has fallen from UPA 2's figure of 5.3% to 3.7%. The Current Account deficit from the UPA 2's five year figure of 3.3% with a high of 5.6% has fallen during this period to an average of 1.5%. Similarly, external debt to GDP has fallen from 23.9% to 20.5% till March, 2018. Foreign exchange reserves are comfortable at US$396 billion and touched an all-time high of US$ 425 billion."

Hailing the tax exemption announced by Goyal in the Interim Budget for those earning upto Rs. 5 lakh, Jaitley said that however, in each of the Budget's of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Government, there has been significant relief to India's middle class.

"The immediate implementation of the 7th Central Pay Commission, the resolution of the long-pending OROP, improvement of the New Pension Scheme, grant of crores of loans under the MUDRA Scheme to aspirational entrepreneurs, provision for housing subsidies for Middle Income Group, downward reduction of both direct and indirect taxes, containing the double digit inflation left by the UPA to what is now a little over 2% itself brings relief to the middle class."

Talking about poor, he said, "The Government has been guided by Gandhi ji's Talisman, "Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? The Government valued the above dictum and worked in that direction from day one."

He also outlined the steps taken by the Modi government in the agriculture sector and progress made during last five years in the fields of infrastructure.

Jaitley said the future vision of the government is to make India a Five Trillion Dollar economy.

"By the middle of the next decade we will achieve this and thereafter, target doubling that size of the economy."

He also spoke about the opposition's allegation about job creation and impact of the demonetisation on the GDP during the rule of Modi government.

"Several datas including the EPFO data have given a detailed indication of the job creation. If there is no job creation, as alleged, there should have logically been a great social unrest in the country. Past five years have passed off without a single major protest movement."

On the impact of demonetisation, Jaitley said, "There were no globally established models on the immediate impact of demonetisation on the GDP growth. The former Prime Minister's statement that it will lead to a 2% drop in the GDP captured the imagination of the Government's critics. Neither the original data for 2016-17 and 2017-18 nor the first revision proved that."

He added that the impact of demonetisation could only be transient as the Government always maintained.

"The present data conclusively establishes this. This is further fortified by the high tax collections both in the direct and indirect taxes during 2016-17 and 2017-18, Tax payments do not rise when the economy is not adequately expanding. Growth figures are based on estimates, tax collections are real."