Page 12 - Plastics News December2018

AIPMA AT WORK

Interaction with Mr. Arun Jaitley, Hon'ble Minister of Finance &
Corporate Affairs, Government of India

By – Mr. L. K. Singh, VP North

head of the interim Budget and general elections RBI was sending him reports regularly, about liquidity
Aearly next year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on of funds on his request. These reports indicated good
Monday 26 November, 2018 held a closed-door meeting liquidity. RBI should focus more on liquidity management
th
with industry captains to discuss the current economic instead of media management.
environment and the steps being taken by the government Recalling about the past he mentioned about B. Ramaro,
to address emerging issues. The meeting was organised in 1956 there was a sudden increase in the stamp duty and
by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Pandit Jawarharlal Nehru our First Prime Minister wrote
I attended the interaction meet with Hon’ble Minister of to him saying Monetary Management is your domain and
Finance Shri Arun Jaitley on 26 November, 2018 at New Government would do the economic policies. RBI should do
th
Delhi. It was very interesting close door meet with Q & the monetary policies to meet the set Economic policies
A session. set by the Government.He also remarked about the fast
growing role of women in the country. He was invited
During the session, Shri Jaitley elaborated on current
to distribute awards to first 20 SRCC students who had
economic environment and the steps being taken by the
government to address emerging issues. Answering many excelled, and he found there were 19 girls and 1 boy!
Many corporates are projecting 55-65% women coming
questions Mr. Arun Jaitley clarified that corporate taxes
were already reduced and were further being reduced up in the management. This he said is the coming trend.
to 21% from current 25%, as revenues inflows increased. I had asked a specific question about why the GST data
He pointed out that whilst most of them were asking for is not shared by the government, for AIPMA being an
decrease it hash elped in promoting industry however associaton that is into operations for the past 74 years
the industry is not supporting this move; every time he needs it?. On this members on behalf of CII intervened and
announced a corporate tax decrease he was heckled. asked we should write to them and they will forward it to
the minister, as the minister had too many other questions.
The industry should support for achieving targets of GST
which the committee had set a target of ~14% increase The question hour was over by then and we need to follow
from a base 14-15 figures. Now after 3 years 42% is it up.
increased and compounded approximately 55%.
He added that 6-7 States had exceeded this target, with
Maharashtra leading in it.Centre is using some of the funds
to support some of the states, but they are also increasing
their collections and may not need any support shortly.
Mr Jaitley informed that Personal tax will also slowly be
lowered, whereas they plan to reduce the No. of GST
slabs, and soon it will just be 5 & 15%.
Citing on the so called contorversy on RBI, he said as L-R: Mr. Uday Kotak, President Designate, CII; Mr. Arun Jaitely, Hon’ble
per the past practice, RBI directives started without Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Government of India; Mr.
consultations and arbitrarily. He would learn about them Rakesh Bharti Mittal, President, CII and Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director
from papers. Many set compliances were not being done. General, CII

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