Arun Jaitley: The 'technically first' satyagrahi against Emergency

On June 26, 1975, the morning after the Emergency was proclaimed, Arun Jaitley gathered a group of people and burnt an effigy of then prime minister Indira Gandhi, making him, in his own words, the "first satyagrahi" against the Emergency.
He was later arrested under preventive detention and was in custody for a period of 19 months from 1975 to 1977.

"When the Emergency was proclaimed at midnight on 25 June 1975, they came to arrest me. I managed to escape by going to a friend's house nearby... The next morning ... I collected as many people as I could and burnt an effigy of Mrs Gandhi (Indira) and got arrested. I courted arrest.
"I technically became the first 'satyagrahi' against the Emergency because on 26 June, this was the only protest in the country. For three months, I was at Ambala jail," said Jaitley, as quoted in the book "Defining India: Through Their Eyes" by journalist-author Sonia Singh.
Jaitley, senior BJP leader and former finance minister, died Saturday at the AIIMS hospital, two weeks after he was admitted following complaint of breathlessness. He was 66.
ALSO READ: Arun Jaitley: A personal tribute
He was Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) student leader and the president of the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) in 1970s.
A bright law student, who lost a great deal of time academically because of his detention, he tried to make the best of his time as a political prisoner.
It was in jail, the lawyer-turned-politician said, that he picked up an "aptitude for reading and writing".
"Friends and family would send me books or I would borrow them from the jail library... For instance, I read the entire Constituent Assembly debates in jail. I would read a lot, write occasionally, and that's a passion that's continued.
"On a lighter side, morning and evening we would play badminton and volleyball," said Jaitley, who shared the cell with a dozen prominent leaders, including former prime minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, BJP veteran LK Advani and the late RSS ideologue Nanaji Deshmukh.
ALSO READ: In 2 stints as defence minister, Jaitley ushered in major military reforms
But then the jail came with its share of problems and one in particular bothered the young man from a Punjabi household, known for his fondness for butter chicken from Delhi's Moti Mahal. It was the bad quality of its food.
"The jail food used to be very bad. As a detainee, you's get a fixed ration allowance -- a total of Rs 3. After an agitation, it was increased to Rs 5, which wasn't as bad as it is today.
"But you could afford a chapati and a vegetable at one time and a chapati and a dal in the next meal -- these were the only two meals possible," he added.
However, not someone to give up, a trait that helped him in his close to five-decades-long political career, Jaitley soon found a solution to this problem too.
"... All of us faked illness so we could get a medical diet of eggs, bread and butter which used to suffice as breakfast.
"For the non-vegetarians we'd slip some money to the jail guard who would bring us some lamb or chicken, and we would cook it there. So we now made the best of the Rs 5 and improved upon it. " he added.

Remembering Arun Jaitley and the mark he left on the Indian economy

Arun Jaitley will be remembered as the finance minister during two of the biggest seismic events in India’s economic history — demonetisation and the goods and services tax (GST).
While helming affairs at North Block, he put in place a number of economic laws and measures. These include the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the Black Money Act, amendments to the Benami Act, the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, banking reforms through the ‘Indradhanush’ programme, mergers of a number of state-owned banks, and a record number of divestment proceeds. For policy watchers, however, his biggest achievement was perhaps fiscal rectitude, something on which he had the unequivocal backing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
For his first Budget in July 2014, Jaitley inherited a fiscal deficit target of 4.1 per cent of GDP. “The target is indeed daunting. Difficult, as it may appear, I have decided to accept this as a challenge. One fails only when one stops trying,” he had said. From 4.1 per cent, the fiscal deficit came down to 3.4 per cent by 2018-19. There were two slippages from the budgeted targets, in 2017-18 and 2018-19, the former due to introduction of the GST. Arvind Subramanian, who was chief economic advisor under Jaitley, has described him as the best boss he has had. Jaitley backed his bureaucrats to the hilt whenever they came under attack. Even when he had to discipline some of them in private, he never criticised them publicly. An example is when Jaitley made it known to people who met him that he was unhappy with Subhash Garg, who was then finance secretary, for tweeting against a comment made by then Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Viral Acharya. In public, Jaitley backed Garg.
ALSO READ: Arun Jaitley: A personal tribute
In informal conversations, current and past bureaucrats, some of whom are still in very powerful positions, have spoken highly of him as a minister who trusted his bureaucrats’ judgement and experience. They would always count on his deep knowledge of the law, the Constitution, and parliamentary processes.
To some critics, it seemed that his reliance on officials may have been detrimental at times. It is still unclear what arguments bureaucrats had placed in front of Jaitley before the finance ministry sent a communication to the RBI last October, saying that it wanted to start consultations with the central bank under Section 7 of the RBI Act on a number of issues.
It was a move that led to the biggest breakdown in the relations between the government and the RBI in recent times. But that was perhaps an aberration as ever the peacemaker and negotiator, Jaitley played a key role in building a consensus to get the Constitution Amendment Bill on the goods and services tax (GST) passed in Parliament. Then, the GST laws were passed in the Assemblies to enable introducing the new indirect tax on July 1, 2017. In all the 33 GST Council meetings that he chaired, never once did decisions have to be taken through voting. All were through consensus. “The political noise outside is inconsistent with the harmony inside the Council,” Jaitley would say often.

ALSO READ: In pics: From Emergency days to finance ministry, the journey of Jaitley
But did his inclusive approach create problems? Critics of the GST say that its complex structure, incorporating five rates when the ideal situation would have been two or three, was a result of Jaitley trying to please everyone. One of his bigger achievements was to get the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) enacted, as a mountain of stressed assets hobbled the banking sector. Timely capital infusion in public sector banks and the move for merger of weak banks with strong banks ensured some stability in the financial sector.
Journalists covering the finance ministry will remember his informal interactions in North Block. These were different from his “durbars” in Parliament and elsewhere, in that these were more on policy than political.
There were of course gossip and anecdotes, some small tidbits of information which could be run as stories. But most importantly, he used these interactions to talk at length about the government’s thinking and reasoning behind any economic decision or policy, an invaluable reference point for journalists covering the government.

Arun Jaitely: Modi's chief trouble-shooter and the original ChanakyaArun Jaitley

Informally called 'scholar minister' in political circles, he could be the man Friday of anyone at the helm. Suave, articulate and a super strategist, Arun Jaitley was the BJP's and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's chief trouble-shooter whose superb four-decade-long political career was cut short by health issues.
Jaitley, 66, who opted out of the Modi 2.0 government over health issues, died at AIIMS in New Delhi on Saturday after being admitted on August 9 following complaints of breathlessness and restlessness.

A consensus builder, he was regarded by some as Modi's original 'Chanakya', his chief trouble-shooter since 2002 when the Gujarat riots hung over the then chief minister like a dark cloud.
Not just Modi, he reportedly was also instrumental in bailing out Amit Shah during the time he was externed from Gujarat. Shah was often sighted in those days at Jaitley's Kailash Colony office and the two would share meals several times a week.
In the months preceding the formal announcement of Modi as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate in 2014, Jaitley worked discreetly behind the scenes to bring around Rajnath Singh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Nitin Gadkari.
A lawyer by training, he was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and when Modi, who once described Jaitley as a "precious diamond", became Prime Minister, he was entrusted with the all-important job of Finance Minister -- overtaking the likes of Arun Shourie and Subramanian Swamy. He was even given additional charge of defence when Manohar Parrikar's health deteriorated.
Knowing well how to work the levers of power, he was Modi's go-to man in New Delhi since the late 1990s and over the years, graduated from being the legal brain, warding off court troubles in the aftermath of the 2002 riots, to being his chief swordsman, input provider and sounding board.
With his multi-faceted experience and acumen, Jaitley was the man for the Modi government in its first term from 2014 to 2019. Be it showcasing the government's achievements or defending controversial policies or launching a fierce attack on the Congress or framing the 2019 election as a contest between stability and chaos, few could have been more effective.
To the nation, he explained the global context of rising fuel prices, articulated a complex Rafale fighter jet deal in simple terms and steered through Parliament major economic legislations such as the nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) -- which had languished for nearly two decades.
He was also the man who explained the government's position when a bill to ban the Muslim instant divorce practice known as 'triple talaq' was brought.
From being the BJP government's key political strategist to managing the crucial finance portfolio, Jaitley wore many hats while pursuing his more material interests such as collecting expensive pens, watches and luxury cars.
However, his stint in the Modi-1.0 government was affected by his frequent bouts of ill health that even led him to take a short sabbatical. Last year, he took a three-month break to undergo a kidney transplant and this year he was forced to travel to the US for treatment, depriving him of the opportunity to present the sixth and final Budget of the Modi government's first term.
A moderate, Jaitley has friends across the political spectrum and is one of India's most articulate and influential leaders who brought civility to public discourse, irrespective of whether one agreed with his position or not.
Several ministers, such as Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan, are believed to have been his proteges. All party spokespersons flocked to him for advice.
While Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar once called him a "super strategist", Modi described him as a "precious diamond" at an election rally in Amritsar from where Jaitley contested, and lost, his first election in 2014. Still, Jaitley retained his fondness for Amritsari chole and kulcha.
As the quintessential insider in the capital's political arena, he was the darling of the media with whom he was so open that he was sometimes accused of being indiscreet and too candid for his own good.
Modi and Jaitley go back a long way. When Modi, an RSS pracharak, was appointed a BJP general secretary in the late 90s in Delhi, he stayed in an annex of Jaitley's official bungalow on 9, Ashoka Road.
He is believed to have been part of the move to oust then Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and install Modi. He backed Modi as chief minister during the outcry over the 2002 riots in Gujarat when support from other BJP leaders in Delhi was not so unwavering.
Son of a successful lawyer who had migrated from Lahore after Partition, Jaitley studied law and became president of the Delhi University Students Union when Indira Gandhi declared Emergency. He spent 19 months in prison for organising a massive protest at the university campus.
After the Emergency, he began practicing law and in 1980 challenged the move by Jagmohan, then Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, to demolish the Indian Express building, which brought him in close contact with Ramnath Goenka, Arun Shourie and Fali Nariman.
This association brought him to the notice of V P Singh, who upon becoming the Prime Minister appointed Jaitley as additional solicitor general, one of the youngest ever to hold the post.
When the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) first came to power in 1999, Jaitley was appointed minister by Vajpayee and over the years, handled law, information and broadcasting, disinvestment, shipping, and industry portfolios.
In 2006, he became the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha and earned the respect of many Congressmen because of his clarity, quick thinking and a phenomenal memory.

Arun Jaitely: Modi's chief trouble-shooter and the original ChanakyaArun Jaitley

Informally called 'scholar minister' in political circles, he could be the man Friday of anyone at the helm. Suave, articulate and a super strategist, Arun Jaitley was the BJP's and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's chief trouble-shooter whose superb four-decade-long political career was cut short by health issues.
Jaitley, 66, who opted out of the Modi 2.0 government over health issues, died at AIIMS in New Delhi on Saturday after being admitted on August 9 following complaints of breathlessness and restlessness.

A consensus builder, he was regarded by some as Modi's original 'Chanakya', his chief trouble-shooter since 2002 when the Gujarat riots hung over the then chief minister like a dark cloud.
Not just Modi, he reportedly was also instrumental in bailing out Amit Shah during the time he was externed from Gujarat. Shah was often sighted in those days at Jaitley's Kailash Colony office and the two would share meals several times a week.
In the months preceding the formal announcement of Modi as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate in 2014, Jaitley worked discreetly behind the scenes to bring around Rajnath Singh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Nitin Gadkari.
A lawyer by training, he was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and when Modi, who once described Jaitley as a "precious diamond", became Prime Minister, he was entrusted with the all-important job of Finance Minister -- overtaking the likes of Arun Shourie and Subramanian Swamy. He was even given additional charge of defence when Manohar Parrikar's health deteriorated.
Knowing well how to work the levers of power, he was Modi's go-to man in New Delhi since the late 1990s and over the years, graduated from being the legal brain, warding off court troubles in the aftermath of the 2002 riots, to being his chief swordsman, input provider and sounding board.
With his multi-faceted experience and acumen, Jaitley was the man for the Modi government in its first term from 2014 to 2019. Be it showcasing the government's achievements or defending controversial policies or launching a fierce attack on the Congress or framing the 2019 election as a contest between stability and chaos, few could have been more effective.
To the nation, he explained the global context of rising fuel prices, articulated a complex Rafale fighter jet deal in simple terms and steered through Parliament major economic legislations such as the nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) -- which had languished for nearly two decades.
He was also the man who explained the government's position when a bill to ban the Muslim instant divorce practice known as 'triple talaq' was brought.
From being the BJP government's key political strategist to managing the crucial finance portfolio, Jaitley wore many hats while pursuing his more material interests such as collecting expensive pens, watches and luxury cars.
However, his stint in the Modi-1.0 government was affected by his frequent bouts of ill health that even led him to take a short sabbatical. Last year, he took a three-month break to undergo a kidney transplant and this year he was forced to travel to the US for treatment, depriving him of the opportunity to present the sixth and final Budget of the Modi government's first term.
A moderate, Jaitley has friends across the political spectrum and is one of India's most articulate and influential leaders who brought civility to public discourse, irrespective of whether one agreed with his position or not.
Several ministers, such as Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan, are believed to have been his proteges. All party spokespersons flocked to him for advice.
While Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar once called him a "super strategist", Modi described him as a "precious diamond" at an election rally in Amritsar from where Jaitley contested, and lost, his first election in 2014. Still, Jaitley retained his fondness for Amritsari chole and kulcha.
As the quintessential insider in the capital's political arena, he was the darling of the media with whom he was so open that he was sometimes accused of being indiscreet and too candid for his own good.
Modi and Jaitley go back a long way. When Modi, an RSS pracharak, was appointed a BJP general secretary in the late 90s in Delhi, he stayed in an annex of Jaitley's official bungalow on 9, Ashoka Road.
He is believed to have been part of the move to oust then Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and install Modi. He backed Modi as chief minister during the outcry over the 2002 riots in Gujarat when support from other BJP leaders in Delhi was not so unwavering.
Son of a successful lawyer who had migrated from Lahore after Partition, Jaitley studied law and became president of the Delhi University Students Union when Indira Gandhi declared Emergency. He spent 19 months in prison for organising a massive protest at the university campus.
After the Emergency, he began practicing law and in 1980 challenged the move by Jagmohan, then Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, to demolish the Indian Express building, which brought him in close contact with Ramnath Goenka, Arun Shourie and Fali Nariman.
This association brought him to the notice of V P Singh, who upon becoming the Prime Minister appointed Jaitley as additional solicitor general, one of the youngest ever to hold the post.
When the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) first came to power in 1999, Jaitley was appointed minister by Vajpayee and over the years, handled law, information and broadcasting, disinvestment, shipping, and industry portfolios.
In 2006, he became the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha and earned the respect of many Congressmen because of his clarity, quick thinking and a phenomenal memory.

Arun Jaitley: The Finance Minister who loved a good meal and good gossip

The home office of lawyer, former Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley — who died on Saturday, August 24 — was the true testament to his personality.
Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves crammed with leather-bound compilations of court cases. In the midst of this intellectual splendour, two framed black and white pictures — of a young, intense-looking Jaitley, wearing thick glasses, standing beside former prime minister Morarji Desai, along with several other young men. These are from his days as a student leader.
There were no pictures of gods and goddesses in this office. Instead, there were framed replicas of legal certificates and mementos from various cricket associations, testifying to the other love of his life.
ALSO READ: Arun Jaitley, former finance minister and economic reformer, dies at 66
How did a man who clearly admired a political leader like Desai and was so fond of cricket that he named his son Rohan (like Sunil Gavaskar’s son) reconcile himself to the company of the rabble-rousing mob that brought down the Babri Masjid in 1992?
Others, too, were confused.
In a rediff.com chat session in the early 1990s, someone asked him: “Mr Jaitley, how can a so-called educated man like you be a member of an obscurantist, fascist organisation like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)?”
He replied: “I reject your understanding of the BJP. Nehruvian thought, which regarded everything that was Indian, ethnic, traditional and cultural, as obscurantist and fundamentalist damaged the Indian ethos. We are criticised because it is said we are pro-Hindu. The threat to global secularism doesn’t come from either Indian nationalism or Hinduism, it comes from elsewhere — you know where. I think you and I need to re-discuss political definitions.”
Dal and spices
With his death, Jaitley has taken with him a slice of the hearts of everyone who knew him; especially, his personal staff.
One of the highest tax payers in Delhi, Jaitley also got a block of flats built for the secretarial staff of his legal practice. The daughter of one of them is now a dentist, practicing in England; her education was funded by Jaitley.
Bureaucrats also found in him a reasonable boss, whose knowledge of business and law was astounding.
Jaitley enjoyed two things above all — a good meal and a good session of gossip.

ALSO READ: In pics: From Emergency days to finance ministry, the journey of Jaitley
Dal from Minar Restaurant at Connaught Place was among his favourite dishes. Jaitley once told this reporter how when he travelled to New York, he would have Indian dishes from a specific restaurant in Manhattan delivered to his hotel.
His love for good gossip earned him many friends among journalists. But, as scribes are themselves notoriously gossipy, this trait also earned him enemies.
Jaitley’s family moved from Lahore to Amritsar in 1946; his mother was expecting her first child, his elder sister. By the time of Partition, his family was settled in India, but with meagre resources.
Like elsewhere in India, Brahmins, as Jaitley’s family was, had little land — but placed a premium on education.
All of Jaitley’s seven uncles were well educated — and the extended family contributed to each other’s education. All the brothers pooled in their resources to send one of them to England to study psychiatry. Most of the others practiced law.
From Emergency to Parliament
Jaitley went to St Xavier’s, and chose science in school, believing he wanted to be an engineer. Later, he joined the bachelor of commerce course at Shri Ram College of Commerce of Delhi University.
It was during his college days that he learned to read a balance sheet — and plunged into politics. He had already become an activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the youth wing of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
He had already contested the college union elections and the ABVP wanted him to stand for the Delhi University Students’ Union polls. But then, the Emergency happened.
The good boy from the middle-class family was pitch-forked into underground politics. In 1974, he was arrested and spent 19 months in prison. While incarcerated, his second-year law results came out — Jaitley had got a first class.
Too young to contest the 1977 elections, he withdrew from politics for a while to concentrate on his legal career.
ALSO READ: Career timeline of Arun Jaitley, PM Modi's go-to man in New Delhi
When Atal Bihari Vajpayee became prime minister (PM) in 1998, Jaitley was made a minister. He made no bones about what portfolio he liked and what he did not — the law ministry was his least favourite.
“You are required to give legal opinion on a couple of cases,” he once said. “But 90 per cent of your time is spent meeting brief-less lawyers who want to be appointed state counsel.”
He was also the information and broadcasting minister briefly; he described the experience in a sentence: “It’s a ministry for Doordarshan that nobody watches anyway.” As commerce minister he did not have enough time to remove the Congress stamp.
It was the Ministry of Disinvestment that had really occupied him. He vowed to make a real change if the National Democratic Alliance ever came to power again, he said in 2004.
Modi’s rock
Jaitley was also a rock for Narendra Modi when the future PM decided to nudge BJP patriarch L K Advani out of the way and make a bid for the top job. He also drew up the blueprint to protect Modi from Delhi’s chattering classes. Modi also sought his advice on various matters — though not in all, such as the first Budget of his government presented.
In the electoral battle, Jaitley had missed success. But, in the Modi government, he was the mentor — he groomed half a dozen of those who became ministers. Some remembered, others did not — Jaitley seemed to care little. He concentrated on getting BJP re-elected, a target he achieved in his lifetime.

Arun Jaitley, former finance minister and economic reformer, dies at 66

Arun Jaitley, who as finance minister steered landmark reforms such as a nationwide goods and services tax and a bankruptcy code, passed away in All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi on Saturday. He was 66.
Jaitley was admitted to Delhi's AIIMS on August 9 after he complained of breathlessness and restlessness. His passing away was mourned by leaders cutting across political lines.
Jaitley, a diabetic, was one of the most important leaders in the first Narendra Modi government and often its chief troubleshooter. He stepped down in January this year due to ill health before Lok Sabha elections that returned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power.
His health worsened after he underwent a kidney transplant in May last year. He had to skip the presentation of the interim budget in February 2018 when he was in hospital in the United States for cancer treatment.
He also had triple bypass heart surgery when he was 52.
Jaitley, a lawyer-turned politician, contributed in a major way to the BJP and the government for over two decades. He has been one of the most important strategists for the party.
Much before BJP president Amit Shah emerged on the national scene, Jaitley was seen as a key player in preparing the party's strategies for the Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections. He has been in charge of states such as Gujarat since 2002, besides Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Assam and West Bengal.

Arun Jaitley admitted in ICU, 'haemodynamically stable' now: AIIMS

Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was admitted to the AIIMS in Delhi on Friday after he complained of breathlessness and restlessness, and is "haemodynamically stable".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey are at the hospital to enquire about his health condition.

"Arun Jaitley was admitted to AIIMS today morning. He is currently undergoing treatment in the Intensive Care Unit under the supervision of a multidisciplinary team of doctors. At present, he is haemodynamically stable," the AIIMS said in a statement.
Jaitley, 66, was admitted at the Cardio-Neuro Centre of the hospital around 10 am, according to the hospital.

Why PM Modi chose Nirmala Sitharaman for the finance ministry job

Partly by default, and partly by design, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has managed to assemble a newish-looking team for his second term. Hopefully, the freshness will carry over to ideas.
The top job in the finance ministry opened up as Arun Jaitley, who held the position during Modi’s first five-year term, made himself unavailable for health reasons.
The prime minister picked Nirmala Sitharaman to become India's first full-time female finance minister. (1) Sitharaman previously handled defense and commerce but lacks the experience typical for what's traditionally considered the cabinet's No. 2 job, having been a member of parliament for only five years. Several of India's past finance ministers have gone on to become prime ministers and presidents.
So perhaps the prime minister himself wants to be closely involved in supervising the economy. That's good and bad. Decisive leadership is required to unclog the jammed financial channels, speedily privatize state-run businesses, and give private investments a decisive push. The risk with strongmen leaders is that they tend to give short shrift to institutions and independent-minded counsel, something that Sitharaman herself will need to be mindful of when implementing her boss's plans.
What the new Indian finance minister lacks in heft, she must make up with organizing ability, as a sort of coordinating minister for economic affairs. A signature reform investors expect from Modi's second term is a new labor law – a single, flexible code to replace a plethora of antiquated rules. With Sitharaman as the point person for finance, and Modi keeping a close tab, the labor ministry will be working overtime to deliver a bill. Ditto for land acquisition, a major roadblock for infrastructure and industrial projects, as my colleague Anjani Trivedi wrote recently. The BJP has a comfortable single-party majority in the lower house of parliament, and may gain control of the upper house by next year. That augurs well for a simplified, less-time-consuming law for acquiring and pooling farmland for new purposes, something Modi was unable to carry through in his first term.
Sitharaman's not-to-do list will be equally crucial. Given how badly India needs risk capital from the rest of the world, one of her priorities will be to rein in an overzealous bureaucracy itching to raid the central bank's reserves. That misadventure, if encouraged, would further emasculate the Reserve Bank. Her other task will be to extricate the government think tank from meddling in GDP statistics, whose quality has recently become a pet peeve of investors.
While Sitharaman as finance minister is a somewhat surprising selection, the most inspired choice in Modi's new cabinet is a non-politician. As a diplomat, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar negotiated with the George W. Bush administration to win US acceptance of India as a legitimate nuclear power. A former ambassador to both the US and China, Jaishankar – as the new foreign minister – can help New Delhi tiptoe around the trade spat between Washington and Beijing. New Delhi has much to gain from a remaking of global supply chains, as well as much at risk from a tech cold war. The digital Iron Curtain, as my colleague Tim Culpan calls it, will be a challenge for the Modi government’s second term. Even as President Donald Trump is determined to isolate Huawei Technologies Co., the Chinese electronics firm is making a strong bid to participate in fifth-generation, or 5G, mobile services in India.
Then there's the broader trade question. China is importing more from other countries to cut reliance on US suppliers. That's helping India slash its annual trade deficit with China by $10 billion to $53 billion. Still, the country's overall trade deficit hit a five-month high in April. Unless the new commerce minister, Piyush Goyal, is able to lift stagnant exports, any revival in domestic demand – or an increase in global oil prices – could destabilize the rupee and derail reforms. Modi's new team has its work cut out.

Arun Jaitley holds meeting on next budget amid rumours of ill health

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley held a meeting on Friday with top bureaucrats of the finance ministry asking them to expedite plans for the first budget of the Modi government’s second tenure, amid rumours of his ill-health.
Jaitley took the meeting minutes on the day when the Union Cabinet passed a resolution to dissolve the 16th Lok Sabha of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s first term was dissolved. The meeting, which discussed key economic issues at length, lasted for about an hour at his residence.

Finance Secretary Subhash Garg, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Expenditure Secretary Girish Chandra Murmu, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar, DIPAM Secretary Atanu Chakraborty and other senior officials from North Block were present in the meeting.
“He discussed the roadmap for the new government and the discussions revolved around the Goods and Services Tax (GST), direct tax code, liquidity position of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and other crucial topics,” a person aware about the development said, requesting anonymity.
Officials present at the meeting said Jaitley was in good health and looked fit to join the cabinet of the NDA government’s second tenure. “He just told us to start work on Budget 2019-20,” another official said.
There has been widespread speculation on whether Jaitley would continue as Finance Minister, given concerns about his health, though it was made clear that Modi would want to retain Jaitley in North Block. Reports indicated that BJP President Amit Shah, and Rail Minister Piyush Goyal were tipped to be Finance Minister had Jaitley not continued for health reasons.
The swearing-in of the new government is expected next week, and the decision on ministerial posts rests with Modi.

Economic growth to end extreme poverty in India by 2031: Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday fast economic growth and rapid urbanisation would slash the number of people in extreme poverty by 2021 and end it completely in the decade after that.
More than 21 per cent of India's 1.3 billion people lived on less than $1.90 a day in 2011, when the last census was taken, according to the World Bank.

The economy is a major issue in a staggered general election that began on Thursday and will end on May 19, with the main opposition Congress party rejecting a rosy picture Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been presenting.
Jaitley, who heads the BJP's publicity department in the election, said the number of people who live in poverty would drop to below 15 per cent in the next three years and to a negligible level in the 10 years after that.
"Urbanisation will increase, the size of the middle-class will grow and the economy will expand manifolds," Jaitley said in a Facebook post.
"These will add to the number of jobs, and as the experience of the past three decades have shown in the liberalised economy, every section of citizens will benefit." Economic growth in recent years had generated enough revenue for states to work more on poverty alleviation, job creation and improving healthcare and education, he said.
But the Congress has taken issue with such assertions, in particular, pointing to leaked government data that showed unemployment rose to its highest level in at least 45 years in 2017/18.
Jaitley said economic problems could be addressed as India remained the world's fastest growing major economy.
But he said restoring peace in the insurgency-hit state of Jammu and Kashmir was the most important issue facing the country.
"The issue of Jammu and Kashmir and terror continues to remain the biggest challenge before India," he said.
"It relates to our sovereignty, integrity and security." Modi has won public praise by taking a tough line on Pakistan, which India accuses of backing separatist militants in Muslim-majority Kashmir. Pakistan denies that.

Ties with J&K will be over if you scrap Article 370: Mehbooba to Modi govt

Hitting back at Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for advocating repeal of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said on Saturday that the relationship between the Union and the state would be over if Article 370 of the Constitution is revoked.
"Jaitley must understand this. It is not an easy thing to say. If you scrap (Article) 370, your relation with J-K will be over," Mehbooba told party workers at her residence.

Jaitley had on Thursday advocated repeal of Jammu and Kashmir's special status and said Article 35A, which restricts non-permanent residents to buy property in Jammu and Kashmir, is "constitutionally vulnerable" and also hampering economic development of the state.
ALSO READ: Govt should fulfil promise of special status to Andhra: Manmohan Singh
Mehbooba said Article 370 was a bridge between the Union and the state and if the special provision of the Constitution was revoked, then New Delhi would have to "renegotiate" its relationship with Jammu and Kashmir.
The former chief minister has said in case Article 370 is revoked, Jammu and Kashmir will have to rethink whether it wants to stay with India.
"Because if you have given us a special position in the Constitution of India and you break that position, then we will have to rethink whether we would even want to stay with you without conditions," she said.
Earlier, National Conference leader Mohammad Abdullah Wani and Awami Insaf Party chief Ghulam Ahmad Sheikh Saloora joined the PDP, along with their supporters.
Wani and Saloora were welcomed into the party fold by Mehbooba and party patron Muzaffar Hussain Beigh.

India has a great future; old narrative on poverty won't hold: Jaitley

A strong economy can enable a redistribution of its larger resources in order to reduce poverty, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said at the Business Standard Awards on Friday.
Honouring the best and the brightest of India Inc and social sectors, Jaitley said in this day and age civil society’s ability to understand what was in its interests was greater than what politicians and the media prescribed.

With less than two weeks to go for the Lok Sabha elections, the finance minister said the “mind space now is elsewhere and not really on the economy”.
With election, the idiom changes, he said. Without directly referring to the recent announcement by the Congress on its minimum income guarantee proposal NYAY, Jaitley spoke about other ways of poverty elimination. The slogans of the past have lost their relevance, he pointed out, adding that it’s time to move forward for an informed debate.
“Things look much brighter now for the future than earlier. India has a great future. By 2024, the middle class and the neo-middle class will be the single-biggest electoral segment. So the same old narrative will not hold,” he said.
“If you go back to the Hindu growth rate, you can only redistribute poverty but you did not have resources to get rid of it. Therefore, this Indian model, which is developing now, of market-based economy with social consciousness, is more competitive, produces the best talent. Then you have a globally competitive system. All these enable you to improve the quality of life,” Jaitley said.
Among the major awards, Jaitley presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej, the Chief Executive of the Year Award to Vinod K Dasari of Ashok Leyland, and the Company of the Year Award to Hindustan Unilever.

While underscoring the need for lowering of public discourse as political rivals try to score points at the hustings, Jaitley said, “I do believe one of the areas required to be corrected is the subversion of public discourse based on absolutely bizarre thesis.” Jaitley said half in jest that he was waiting for the “next seven weeks to get over” for the sanity of discourse to return after the elections.
Jaitley reiterated a number of achievements of the Modi government, such as the goods and services tax (GST), Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), Ayushman Bharat and increase in the tax base despite reduction in tax rates.
“We have taken a thousand decisions in 34 GST Council meetings, and each one has been through a consensus. We had a majority, but we never resorted to voting. The biggest critics of the GST would not be able to speak for even five minutes, if asked, and it will all be sloganeering,” he said.
Jaitely Also, the IBC has brought about an ethical discipline in businesses, according to the finance minister. That is, if a company does not or cannot pay, it should be ready to exit. He pointed out that two-thirds of the amount had been recovered without resolution or winding up the companies concerned. “Without adjudication, there have been changes in business ethics. Earlier, companies ran after bankers, and then bankers ran after companies. Now the situation has been reversed,” he said. On the government’s flagship health scheme Ayushman Bharat, he said in the first seven-eight months it had served 180,000 people and would touch the 10-million mark in the next two years. “The scheme costs just 0.1 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product, but touches 40 per cent of its population,” he said.
On Aadhaar, Jaitley said the unique identification programme would make a very big difference to poverty elimination in the country. “When Nandan Nilekani devised the idea of the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India), there was resistance from some departments in the government. We had our own version of those 108 economists to warn us that national security would be compromised. When we came to power, we had a meeting with Nilekani, who convinced us of Aadhaar and its potential, and suddenly my friends in the Congress said they won’t allow the Bill to be passed in the Rajya Sabha,” he said.
Jaitley said he was happy that the Congress would use the direct benefit transfer (DBT) system to implement their new poll promise. He was indirectly referring to the Congress’ NYAY proposal to transfer Rs 6,000 per month directly to the bank accounts of 20 per cent poorest people in the country.
Returning to the theme of elections and public discourse, he said there used to be a document in the Budget titled “taxes foregone”, around which much of the misconception arose that privileges were given to the rich. “The reality in fact was that these contained rebates to the middle class for savings for taxes and difference between the bound rate and the applied rate in direct taxes. When I analysed it, I changed the title of the booklet to “tax incentives” for boosting the economy and encouraging savings. The misconceptions went away,” he said.

Arun Jaitley returns from US, says 'delighted to be back home'

Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday returned from the United States, where he was undergoing medical treatment.
"Delighted to be back home," Jaitley tweeted.

Jaitley, who was the Finance Minister before a medical procedure led to the charge being temporarily taken away from him, missed presenting the sixth and final Budget of the Narendra Modi government before the general elections. In his absence, the charge of the ministry was given to Railways Minister Piyush Goyal.
Jaitley, however, has been active on social media tweeting and writing Facebook posts and had also met reporters through a video call from New York and fielded questions on the Budget. He also gave interviews on the subject.
In an interview to PTI in New York after the Budget presentation, Jaitley said he was on recovery course and return to India in time to reply to the Budget debate in Parliament will depend on when his doctors allow him to leave.
"It depends on my treatment here, which is all over. I am on the recovery course. It's when my doctors allow me to go back. As of present, as I understand, Piyush Goyal will be replying (to the Budget debate in Parliament)," he said.

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The Budget session of Parliament ends on February 13, and debate on the Interim Budget has been taken up in the Lok Sabha.
Jaitley, 66, had last month flown to New York for the treatment after being reportedly diagnosed with soft tissue cancer which required surgery.
This was his first overseas visit after he underwent renal transplant surgery on May 14, 2018, at AIIMS.
He had stopped attending office at the beginning of April last year due to his kidney ailment and was back in North Block - the seat of Finance Ministry - on August 23, 2018. Even then, Goyal had manned the ministry for about 100 days.
Jaitley in September 2014 underwent bariatric surgery to treat weight gain that he suffered because of a long-standing diabetic condition.

Jaitley says govt may increase cash support for farmers; slams Congress

Union Minister Arun Jaitley Sunday hinted that the Rs 500 a month cash dole to small farmers may be increased in the future as the government's resources grow and said states can top up this amount with their own income support schemes.
He also slammed Congress President Rahul Gandhi for ridiculing the scheme announced in the Interim Budget for 2019-20 by equating it to Rs 17 a day dole, saying the opposition leader must "grow up" and realise that he is contesting a national election and not a college union poll.
The plan to give Rs 6,000 cash to 12 crore small and marginal farmers every year together with government schemes for giving them a house, subsidised food, free healthcare and hospitalisation, free sanitation, electricity, roads, gas connections, twice the amount of credit at very cheap rate are all aimed at addressing farm distress, Jaitley told PTI in an interview.
"This is the first year where it (farmer income support scheme) has begun. I am sure as the government resources improve, this can be increased," he said.
On nearly 150 million landless farmers being left out of the scheme, he said they have rural employment guarantee scheme MNREGA plus other benefits for the rural population.
"What is the biggest thing that the Congress claims that they ever did? (UPA regime Finance Minister) P Chidambaram announced a Rs 70,000 crore farm loan waiver... (but) actual distributed was only Rs 52,000 crore. (Also), CAG said a large part of that money went to traders and businessmen and converted itself into a fraud," he said.
The present government, he said, is "starting off over and above the lakhs of crores we are putting into rural areas."
"We are starting off with Rs 75,000 crore a year and I foresee this amount increasing in the years to come. And if the states top it up, some states have already started with the scheme, I think the others must emulate them, it will increase," he added.
Jaitley, who is here for medical treatment, said the state governments too have a responsibility to address farm distress by bringing their own income support schemes.
"Some state governments have started it," he said. "So my advise to what I call the 'Nawabs of Negativity' is ask your own state governments to top it off with their own income support schemes. Ideally, like the GST, this is a case where all political parties must defy party lines and in the spirit of cooperative federalism, have a Centre plus state scheme."
He said most of the central schemes are divided into 60:40 ratio, so "let us enhance this to 60:40 in the spirit of cooperative federalism" and instead of "giving criticism, let the states give 40 (per cent)."
"In addition to the fertiliser subsidy - another big amount, the healthcare, cheap ration, over a dozen other things you are spending on. This is just an add-on, this (income support) is not something being thrown in the air. The Congress doesn't understand it because it did nothing," he said.
On Gandhi's criticism of the Budget proposal, he said, "I think he needs to grow up. He must realise that he is contesting a national election not a college union one."
On his predecessor P Chidambaram's criticism that the interim budget was an "account for vote" and not a 'Vote on Account', he said, "I have no problem with monies being spent on either of these two accounts. But I have a serious problem when monies go into personal accounts."
Taking on the Congress, he said the comments by the leaders of the principal opposition party and "some other compulsive contrarians" indicate that they have a complete lack of understanding of the subject.
"Others have been in power much longer than we have been and did nothing. There is a real problem in India, both with regard to the urban-rural divide, which is reflective of the quality of life available in rural areas, and the state of agriculture. You have to look at both these issues compositely," he said.
Jaitley, who had to give up charge of the finance ministry to undergo medical treatment just weeks before the budget was presented, said the Congress gave just slogans like 'Garibi Hatao' (remove poverty) but delivered very little.
Dwelling on the steps taken by the BJP-led NDA government since coming to power in 2014 to address farm sector distress, he said the Centre adopted a two-pronged approach of raising rural infrastructure spend and raising farm incomes.

Don't cast net too wide: Jaitley on CBI's handling of ICICI Bank case

Union minister Arun Jaitley on Friday questioned the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI’s) approach to the ICICI Bank-Videocon loan case, and said that including too many bankers in the first information report (FIR) could hurt the interests of the banking industry. He said there should be a fundamental difference between “investigative adventurism” and “professional investigation”. “If we include the entire who’s who of the banking industry — with or without evidence — what cause are we serving or actually hurting,” Jaitley said in a blog on Facebook on Friday night.
“Sitting thousands of kilometres away, when I read the list of potential targets in the ICICI case, the thought that crossed my mind was, instead of focusing primarily on the target, is a journey to nowhere (or everywhere) being undertaken?” said Jaitley, who is undergoing medical treatment in the US.
On Thursday, the CBI named former ICICI Bank managing director and chief executive Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar, Videocon group’s promoter Venugopal Dhoot as accused in the case.
“One of the reasons why our conviction rates are poor is that adventurism and megalomania overtakes our investigators and professionalism takes a back seat,” said Jaitley.
The finance minister warned that casting the net too wide and including people who might not have a common intention to commit an offence amounted to relying on presumptions with no legally admissible evidence.
“Such sort of an adventurism leads to media leaks, ruins reputations and eventually invites strong criticism but no convictions. My advice to our investigators – Follow the advice of Arjun in the Mahabharat – Just concentrate on the bull’s eye,” he said.

Over 6,000 PSB officers held responsible for bad loans in FY18: Jaitley

The government Friday said action has been taken against more than 6,000 officers of nationalised banks last fiscal in cases of lapses that led to bad loans.
In written reply, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that minor and major penalties have been imposed against erring officials. These include, dismissal, compulsory retirement and demotion.

"As per the inputs received from nationalised banks, in FY 2017-18, 6,049 officers have been held responsible on account of staff delinquency in NPA accounts...," Jaitley said.
Depending upon the gravity of lapses, the minister said "minor penalty/ major penalty have been imposed against erring officials" and in all the cases, depending upon the amount involved, CBI and police complaints have been lodged.
The 19 nationalised banks, including PNB and Canara Bank, reported a net loss of Rs 213.88 billion in the first half of the fiscal. This compares with a combined loss Rs 68.61 billion in the similar period of 2017-18.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said that no loan account of state-owned banks with outstanding of over Rs 250 million has been "declared as evergreen" since June 2014.
In another written reply to the lower House, Shukla said as a result of transparent recognition of bad loans, the non-performing asset (NPA) amount of all commercial banks rose from Rs 5.66 trillion at end-March 2016 to Rs 9.62 trillion at end of March 2018.
Since then the amount has declined to Rs 9.43 trillion.
He further said the public sector banks have reported a "record recovery" of Rs 607.13 billion in the first half of the current financial year.
This, he said, was double the amount recovered by them during corresponding period of the last financial year.

Govt to meet fiscal deficit target of 3.3% despite GST rate cut: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday expressed confidence of meeting the fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of GDP for the current fiscal despite revenue loss due to the reduction in GST rates.
The GST Council, headed by the finance minister, in its 31st meeting on Saturday decided to cut rates on 23 commonly used goods and services, which will lead to an annual revenue loss of Rs 55 billion.

"At the stage, when we are looking at the (revenue) target, indirect tax is little behind the scheduled direct tax, the direct tax is ahead of schedule. Our non-tax revenue also seems to be moving ahead fairly well. At the moment, the government is quite optimistic that we will be able to meet fiscal deficit target," he said after the GST Council meeting here.
ALSO READ: GST Council cuts rates on 23 items, rationalises 28% slab: Key takeaways
The government has budgeted to contain fiscal deficit at 3.3 per cent of the GDP in the current fiscal, lower than 3.5 per cent in 2017-18.
As per the latest data, the fiscal deficit in the April-October period stood at 103.9 per cent of budget estimates.
Dispelling fears of a major impact on revenue collection, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said that the loss of Rs 55 billion is for the entire fiscal, so for the three months it would be one-fourth of this.
ALSO READ: Govt wants Rs 100 bn interim dividend from RBI for fiscal deficit target
This shortfall would be more than met by measures to improve tax compliance through various means, he added.

Jaitley admits to 2-3 areas of differences between Centre and RBI

Finance minister Arun Jaitley Thursday admitted there were two-three areas of differences with the Reserve Bank (RBI), but questioned how a mere discussion on its functioning could be considered "destruction" of an institution.
Under attack politically for creating circumstances that led to the resignation of Urjit Patel as the central bank's Governor, Jaitley listed out a string of actions initiated by past governments including Congress PMs Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi asking RBI Governors to resign.

Speaking at the Times Networks India Economic Conclave, Jaitley said the differences with RBI included credit flow in the economy and liquidity support, and added that the government had initiated a "discussion" to convey its concerns.
"A discussion with an important institution, which is independent and autonomous, to tell it that its a part of your (RBIs) functions and therefore this is an important area of an economy which you must look at, how is it destruction of the institution?," he questioned.
According to reports, the government had initiated discussions under the never-used Section 7 of the RBI Act which provides for the central government forcing down decisions in public interest. It is this aspect, which led to voicing of concerns across and also a strong speech by RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya to warn against compromising RBI autonomy. Jaitley did not elaborate on how the discussion were initiated.
"We are the sovereign government, we are the most important stakeholders as far as the management of an economy is concerned," Jaitley said, in reference to the discussions with RBI.
He reiterated that the RBI has the responsibility as far as credit and liquidity is concerned. "We are not taking over the function," he said, adding that the government was only initiating discussions using instruments which force a discussion.
"In some situations, the autonomous institutions also have to be informed that there is some difficulty arising in the system that requires to be corrected," he added.
Further, if the government is not able to convey the difficulties in the system, it would be failing its duty, he said.
The FM pointed out that the countrys first prime minister Nehru had written to the RBI stating that the economic policies are determined by the elected government, while RBI has autonomy over the monetary policy.
The RBI's policies also need to be in sync with the economic policies, Jaitley stressed.
Patel resigned amid the protracted friction with the government Monday, citing personal reasons. the government has immediately appointed retired bureaucrat Shaktikanta Das, who was at the helm of finance ministry during the controversial demonetisation exercise, as his successor.

Govt does not need money from RBI in next six months, says Arun Jaitley

India does not need money from the central bank in the next six months, the finance minister said in a TV interview telecast on Friday, rejecting opposition charges the government was seeking access to the bank's reserves to fund schemes ahead of the 2019 general election.
"I don't need money in the next six months," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told a channel.

Critics accuse the government of trying to undermine the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) authority, but Jaitley said his government respected the institution's independence.
"We respect the autonomy (of the RBI) but, at the same time, if some sectors are starved of liquidity or credit, we will flag those issues. We do so with the RBI."
ALSO READ: RBI rejected govt proposal to apply Basel-III guidelines to four banks
The Congress, India's main opposition party, has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government of eyeing the cash reserves held by the RBI.
"Government is determined to 'capture' RBI in order to gain control over the reserves," P. Chidambaram, a former finance minister, and a top Congress leader tweeted last week.

ALSO READ: Govt for more central board members in key RBI panel ahead of Dec 14 meet
New Delhi has been pushing for access to RBI's surplus reserves prompting the central bank's board to form an expert panel to look into whether its cash pool is adequate.
The board whose members include government nominees, in a meeting last week, advised the RBI to aid small businesses and give bankers more time to step up capital norms to encourage lending and stimulate the economy ahead of next year's election.

Note ban expanded tax base, led to digitisation, says Arun Jaitley

Personal income tax (I-T) collection rose 20.2 per cent and corporation tax 19.5 per cent in the first seven months of the current financial year (2018-19 or FY19), over the corresponding period of the previous year (2017-18 or FY18), said Finance Minister (FM) Arun Jaitley on Thursday. For this, he credited the government decision to demonetise high-value currency notes on November 8, 2016.
In the Budget for FY19, the government targeted 19.88 per cent growth for personal I-T and 10.15 per cent growth for corporation tax.
Quoting a plethora of statistics, Jaitley said on his Facebook page in the two years before demonetisation — 2014-15 (FY15) and 2015-16 (FY16) — direct tax collections increased 6.6 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively. Since demonetisation, the increase has been 14.6 per cent in 2016-17 and 18 per cent in 2017-18.
He also said formalisation of the economy because of demonetisation and the goods and services tax (GST), rolled out in July 2017, had yielded growth in indirect tax collection as well.
“In FY15, the indirect tax-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio was 4.4 per cent. Post-GST (sic), it has climbed up by at least 1 percentage point to 5.4 per cent,” he said in his post, “Impact of Demonetisation”.
He said despite an annual I-T relief of Rs 970 billion to the smaller taxpayers and a Rs 800-billion to the GST assessees, tax collections have gone up.
The finance minister also said the GST had made it increasingly difficult to evade taxes. The indirect tax-to-GDP ratio had gone up to 5.4 per cent since the GST roll-out, from 4.4 per cent in FY15.
Tax rates — both direct and indirect — have been cut, he said, citing the example of 334 commodities on which the pre-GST effective levy was 31 per cent.
Jaitley said the formalisation of the economy had prompted the government to earmark more resources for the welfare and infrastructure development.
In FY18, 68.6 million tax returns were filed — an increase of 25 per cent over the previous year. As of October 31 this year, 59.9 million tax returns have been filed — an increase of 54.33 per cent over the previous year. About 8.6 million new taxpayers were added this year.
ALSO READ: After demonetisation, Centre arm-twisting RBI: West Bengal FM Amit Mitra
When the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government came to power in May 2014, the number of I-T filers was 38 million. Now, the number has reached 68.6 million.
“By the time the first five years of this government are over, we will be close to doubling the assessee base,” he said.
The FM said another success of demonetisation was the push to digitisation. With paucity of cash in the economy immediately after Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were demonetised, indigenous cards and payment systems such as RuPay and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) have overtaken Mastercard and Visa.
“Today, Visa and Mastercard are losing market share to indigenously developed payment system. The share of UPI and RuPay has reached 65 per cent of payments through debit and credit cards,” Jaitley said.
He also dismissed those who criticised demonetisation as “ill-informed” for saying the entire demonetised cash was deposited in banks. Confiscation of currency was not an objective of the note ban, he said.

ALSO READ: Two years of demonetisation: Growth back on track, but leaves out MSMEs
“Getting it into the formal economy and making the holders pay tax was the broader objective. The system required to be shaken up in order to make India move from cash to digital transactions. This would obviously have an impact on higher tax revenue and a higher tax base,” Jaitley said.
Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said demonetisation and the GST reflect the long-term vision of the government and its ability to undertake massive structural reforms.
ALSO READ: Two years after getting hit by demonetisation, MSMEs continue to limp
“Tax filers under both direct and indirect taxes are close to getting doubled. Digital payments have risen sharply and become commonplace. Fake notes are out,” Garg tweeted.