New Delhi, Nov 11: Expressing confidence that India will cross 6% GDP growth in 2015-16, the new Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said the priority of the government will be job creation and inflation management.
“We are expecting the growth to pick up and be on the accelerating trajectory. Hopefully we will cross 6-6.5% next year,” Sinha told reporters soon after taking charge.
He further said the economy will return to 7-8% sustainable growth trajectory in the coming years.
The economic growth slumped to 4.7% in 2013-14 and is estimated to be between 5.4-5.9% in current fiscal.
The 51-year old Sinha, an IIT-Delhi and Harvard alumnus, was inducted as the Minister of State during the expansion of Union Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday.
Sinha also expressed hope that the government will be able to push the Insurance Bill and the Constitutional amendment bill on Goods and Services Tax (GST) during the Winter session of Parliament beginning November 24.
Referring to the Insurance Laws Amendment Bill, which seeks to raise FDI cap in the sector from 26% to 49%, he said: “when it comes to Parliament we are confident that we will get the support that we require”.
As regards GST, Sinha said: “that itself has gone through years and years of preparation and consensus building … We are sure will be able to show some positive results in this session”.
On fiscal situation, he said, it was well in hand and the government is monitoring the situation very closely with respect to tax collections.
Referring to the priorities of the government, he said they have already been articulated by the Prime minister and the Finance Minister.
“First, creating jobs is very important for us and for the economy. The second area that we have emphasised and we have done well on is obviously managing inflation and price rise, which has been a major election issue and I think we have done remarkably well on that,” Sinha said, adding it was necessary to get the investment cycle moving.
Earlier, he was briefed by senior officials in the Ministry soon after taking charge. He assumes office at a time when the Ministry is preparing the Budget for 2015-16.
“We have been fortunate to have tailwinds of lower oil prices which are going to help on the expenditure side. So when we take into account we are very confident that we will be able to achieve our fiscal targets,” he said.
Sinha was elected to the Lok Sabha in May this year from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand.
His career has seen him work as an investment fund manager and management consultant.