News18 India Chaupal: FM Nirmala Sitharaman Says there Should be No Apprehensions About Bold Reforms

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said there should be no apprehension about the implementation of bold reforms and all reforms are on track as per plan. She also said the government will continue with systemic reforms and welfare schemes for the people like it has done in the past.

Talking to Rahul Joshi, Group Editor-in-chief, Network18, at the News18 India Chaupal event, the finance minister hit back at the charges of “rollback government”. She questioned those who are “pushing the u-turn narrative”.

On the pension scheme, Sitharaman said the government has put up a good alternative for the OPS/NPS debate. Employees unions have welcomed this.

On the economic growth, She also said it is easy to cherrypick numbers and make claims. We did not incur big expenditure in Q1 due to elections etc. Expenditure will pick up in Q2 and Q3, and boost the “slowing down” growth being alleged.

“Because of elections, the capex could not happen much in Q1; as a result impact of capex was muted in Q1. Expenditure will pick up and trigger the GDP growth in coming quarters,” said FM Nirmala Sitharaman.

On rate cuts in future, Sitharaman said the RBI is doing its full analysis and taking a call. “I, therefore, expected them to look at the economy as a whole for both growth and inflation,” she said.

On equities markets, she said we will have to encourage markets to be robust. But when speculative activties are too much, there needs to be a sense of caution. We need to make sure people don’t go to high risk ventures with their life savings.

On recent allegations against the Sebi chief, Sitharaman said, “I think a few of the allegations are being answered by the Buchs. Putting out facts to contradict allegations by Congress, I think the facts are to be taken on board.”

On the status of direct taxation review, the finance minister said, “FM Nirmala Sitharaman said on taxation,” Since 2019, the attempt has been to simply direct taxation. Attempt has been to make the process simpler, which is why a new regime was brought in and rates kept low.” We gave the option to assessees that if they want exemptions, they could continue with the old scheme. The new scheme was without any exemptions. Later we added standard deductions after hearing the people. In the July budget, we again had more discussions and brought more rates down for the middle class. Standard deduction was also increased. So if anything, keeping the middle class in mind, PM had said rates be brought down. We have kept the middle class in mind.”

There are those who feel the rates being brought down for the new scheme should be applied for the old scheme. But our intention with the new scheme was to simplify. More than 70% of people have moved to the new regime, although we have not compelled anyone. Tax slabs in the new regime will apply to everyone who opts for the scheme regardless of their incomes, and those drawing salaries also benefit from it. We are carefully looking at each option before applying it, she said.

She also said the consultation is over on One Nation, One Polls (ONOP). The public agrees that we are spending too much on various elections. Also development activities are held up due to model code. These are avoidable expenses.

FM Nirmala Sitharaman said, “In Budget we brought schemes to train 1 crore people to help towards employment. After Budget we meet the industry across India.” “Corrections are made after suggestions from people. The asset classes were targeted for same treatment in Budget. It’s not a U turn but accomodating indexation benefit in real estate after receiving suggestions from people.”

“Any party aspiring to power should understand what that state/centre be able to take up. Will it be able to fund the schemes being announced. What I find is that freebies are given for temptation. And then states struggle to meet the bills. Classic examples are Karnataka and Himachal. Look at their conditions now. State govts are not able to pay current salaries. In Karnataka, an unbelievable number of promises were made. Now they are themselves saying they can’t meet their responsibilities,” the finance minister said.

Four classes of people are in focus including women, youth, farmer. “We will give development a priority rather than castes,” Sitharaman said