Washington Finance minister Arun Jaitley said demonetisation has resulted in a sharp reduction in militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir where stone throwers were no longer active in the last 8-10 months.
He made the remarks while refuting the impression that transformational initiatives like ‘Swachh Bharat’, GST and demonetisation have not resulted in any changes on the ground.
The finance minister said following demonetisation, there has been sharp reduction in insurgent and militant activities in states like Jammu and Kashmir and Chhattisgarh.
The funding itself has gotten squeezed, Jaitley said in a keynote address via video conference to the Berkeley India Conference on Saturday ahead of his visit to the US to interact with the corporate world and attend the annual meeting of IMF and World Bank in Washington DC.
“You are having militant incidents (now), but the fact that you were finding 5,000-10,000 stone throwers being provided with money by the militant organisations, why is it that in the last 8-10 months it has not happened?” he asked.
Jaitley also said that India needs to grow at a faster pace, while asserting that there was public support for the governments reform initiatives despite the difficulties arising from implementing GST, for instance.
The obvious challenge to the country is to grow and grow fast. It has to grow at a much higher rate than we have been growing in recent history, Jaitley said.
He is due to leave for the US on Monday to attend the forthcoming annual meeting of International Monetary Fund and World Bank here.
I do hope that India is able to retain its growth rate once again and live up to the aspirations of its people because we must not forget that we not only have a large population to service, we have a very young population to service, he said.
Pulled down by sluggish manufacturing, growth in the Indian economy, during the first quarter (April-June), fell to 5.7 per cent, clocking the lowest GDP growth rate under the Narendra Modi dispensation.
On reforms, the Finance Minister said the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has resulted in creation of a national tax structure.
In the three months, you have all the check points in states disappeared, you have clear flow of goods and services which has started all over the country, he said.
Acknowledging issues related to compliance, Jaitley said the GST Council had noted these challenges and is taking steps to address them. GST has been a reasonable smooth transformation, but there is scope for improvement, he said.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 | |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |