We’re addressing challenges faced by economy: Arun Jaitley

FM Arun Jaitley and minister of road transport, highways & shipping Nitin Gadkari. (Source: Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

Amid buzz of stimulus to spur growth, finance minister Arun Jaitley said the government was in the process of addressing the challenges faced by the economy. But he sought to reject opposition’s criticism that the note ban caused the sharp slowdown in growth to a three-year low of 5.7 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal. “..whatever steps are required to change the (economic) environment we are certainly in the process of addressing that,” Jaitley said. He asserted that macro-economic data in the last three-and-a-half years revealed that the economy had been in a much better shape than what the current regime inherited.

Taking a dig at the Opposition, Jaitley said the Congress-led UPA had not “taken a single step against black money and corruption”. “Corruption and elimination of black money was never part of UPA’s political and economic agenda. It is obvious that any step against black money and corruption will never be supported by any UPA leader.”

Jaitley said the services sector performance remained robust in April-June, although manufacturing brought the GDP growth down. While pre-GST stock clearances hit manufacturing in Q1, the inability of bad loans-hit banks to boost lending impacted investments. Earlier in the day, minister of road transport, highways & shipping Nitin Gadkari had said “teething problems” happen when major reforms like GST and demonetisation are undertaken.

(With inputs from FE)