Mumbai: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the current situation of high inflation and low growth has to be reversed to achieve sustainable GDP (gross domestic product) expansion along with improvement in price situation.
"If inflation is high then you begin at a point where growth is low. We need to change this situation. And, I believe that unless we find out the reasons which have led us to such a situation, it is difficult to solve it," Mr Jaitley said while speaking at a BJP forum meeting in Mumbai. This was his second engagement in the country's financial capital after becoming Finance Minister.
He attributed the reasons for the current predicament to policy paralysis and the populist measures of the previous UPA regime. "Some of the populist schemes like free medicines in Rajasthan did not help the then ruling party to come back to power," the Finance Minister said.
Stating that the Narendra Modi government inherited very low growth, Mr Jaitley said GDP grew at 4.5 per cent and 4.7 per cent in 2012-13 and 2013-14, respectively. "The manufacturing sector for one year was flat and another year it was negative. When manufacturing growth becomes negative, the Customs and Excise duties come down, revenue of government also comes down, forcing it to borrow more," he said.
Calling for eradication of poverty, the minister said one of the challenges for the nation was to remove poverty and increase the pace of development. "People are not ready to accept that the pace of development is slow and we are not able to remove poverty," he said.
