Problem of black money can be tackled by rationalising taxes: Arun Jaitley

Stating that a series of measures taken during the 15 months of BJP rule has restored credibility of India in eyes of global players, he said the government was speeding up regulatory clearances, reducing licensing requirements in the defence sector and making tax policy more consistent.

“One of the great shoulders the world was relying on (was) China”. The Finance Minister said the world needs “additional shoulders” other than China to push growth and this presents an opportunity for India.

“Indian aspirations are changing and therefore that opposition has been taken very badly as far as the electorate is concerned”, he said.

On Monday, the home ministry, in an advisory to all states, said there would be “zero tolerance” for incidents that “attempt to weaken the secular fabric of the nation and exploit religious sentiments”. He said that one of the main problems of credibility related to taxation issues. “We need to rise above these kinds of incidents because they certainly don’t give a good name as far as the country is concerned”, he told reporters here after a lecture at Columbia University. Jaitley said the government is “keeping all options open” to resolve the taxation issues either by judicial or executive process.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley guaranteed a rational tax rate for individuals and lowering of corporate tax to 25% in four years, beginning next fiscal.

He said he carried forward the previous government’s initiative on the GST, which had been cleared in the Lok Sabha and in the Rajya Sabha also the numbers were “on our side but by sheer disturbances the Congress party decided not to allow it”. “Bulk of the litigation and discretion is around those exemptions”, he added. “I am shortly going to notify all the exemptions which are going to be rationalised this very year itself”, he said. “We have also made a decision to defer the implementation of the general anti avoidance rules (GAAR) for 2 years”. He pointed out that there was a time when India had an “agitational approach” to a lot of such global arrangements.

“We obviously realise we can not have an isolationist existence”, he said.