Economic indicators suggest India’s growth moving fast: FM
Sitharaman speaks at the BS Manthan in New Delhi
Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said economic indicators suggested that the state of India’s economic growth was moving very fast with all the engines fully functioning.
Speaking at the BS Manthan in New Delhi, Sitharaman said she credited the entire Finance Ministry for having kept a complete watch and being very meticulous about the way in which they had drawn inputs about the economic health of the country.
Assuring the healthy state of economy, she said the periodic reports, which had come from the banks, had not been in contradiction of what the Finance Ministry had outlined.
Speaking about economic challenges, Sitharaman emphasized that the country had challenges and some we could address but there were some which are beyond us yet they had the power to affect us.
“Luckily, in these past 5-6 years, the government has been able to manage the challenges in form of global uncertainties. However, in order to overcome it, we have signed trade agreements; taxation related agreements have been updated, and countries are coming in line to explore the Indian market.”
In terms of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BIT), the FM said the 2016 model BIT, which the government had come up with, had been tweaked completely based on the bilateral requirements. For instance, the BIT with UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman saw tweaking.
“There are countries which asked for BIT during negotiations and there are some nations which are investing without asking BIT, so the world of investment today seems to be going through different priorities,” she added.
Asked about relaxing the rules for China’s investment in India, Sitharaman said both the countries were very different from each other from an economic point of view.
“I will be concerned about the ultimate beneficiary owner and what kind of money or investments is coming from China or from any other country for that matter. We have to be assuring that such money can be traced to the ultimate owner,” she added.
