Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Center will take forward the industry’s proposal to bring jet fuel, a key input for the beleaguered airline industry, under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.
Speaking at a virtual post-Budget interaction organized by industry body Assocham on Sunday, Sitharaman also said that the government is keeping a close watch on global inflation trends.
“On GST, as you mentioned, it is not with me alone. It has to go to the GST Council. So the next time we meet in council, I’ll put it on the table to discuss it.”
Jet fuel is one of the five items that are not included in GST.
Others are crude oil, petrol, diesel and natural gas.
In a separate industry interaction on Sunday, the minister said the government was closely monitoring global inflationary pressures and would not allow the Indian economy to suffer due to lack of preparedness.
Speaking at an event organized by industry body FICCI, Sitharaman said that after the 2008-09 financial crisis, the liquidity taps were not closed at the appropriate time. As a result, she said that India has become one of the fragile five countries.
“The taper tantrum was not addressed at all. We have learned from past crises. We are closely monitoring global inflationary pressures and we will not allow the Indian economy to suffer from a lack of preparedness.”
Sitharaman had assured businesses in another post-Budget conversation organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) a day ago that the government has a contingency plan in place to deal with external factors for the economy, including interest rate hikes by the US federal government. growth factors are also included. Reserve.
At the ASSOCHAM meeting, he assured that the government is working on quickly resolving legacy financial strains between power distribution utilities as part of India’s efforts to meet climate change goals.
She also said that she would talk to banks to ensure liquidity support to sectors that need it.
Responding to suggestions of the industry to send further signals against dumping of ferrous and non-ferrous metals in India, the Minister said that the competitive demand from various sections of the industry- large scale metal producers is competing with low cost imports and The need for access to affordable raw materials for small businesses arose a policy dilemma.
“While we do not want dumping, we also want the price to be at an affordable level for MSMEs,” the minister said.
Sitharaman said that the government is addressing the issues involved in the power sector layer by layer. The problems facing this field are the problems of inheritance.
“We will get it out of the way so we can work on future financing and better partnerships. It’s not going to be dragged on. We would like to resolve this very quickly because we understand the gravity of this area.”
He said it was important for the sector to be upbeat to meet India’s commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070.
On Sunday, Sitharaman also said that LIC’s initial public offering will take place soon. The Minister clarified that due care has been taken to ensure that nothing is found lacking in the process of disinvestment. “So they (officers) take their extra precautionary care. I’d rather go down that road than push them to conclude fast. Yes, I am interested in fulfilling the promises made in last year’s budget.”
Government has set a target of disinvestment 65,000 crore in FY23. It also slashed the disinvestment target for FY22 78,000 crore to 1.75 trillion.
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