New Delhi: Promising the fairest tax regime and a stable policy environment, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday invited US businesses to take advantage of the huge investment opportunity in the infrastructure sector and raise bilateral trade to USD 500 billion.
The minister said global financial turmoil was not a problem for the country as the savings on account of declining oil and other commodity prices have helped the government earmark more funds for the infrastructure sector and social sector schemes.
Jaitley was addressing the 11th Indo-US Economic Summit, which among others was attended by the US Ambassador to India, Richard Verma.
Stressing that the government has been able to deal with most of the legacy issues in taxation and put them to rest, Jaitley said efforts have been made to evolve the "fairest" taxation regime, promote ease of doing business, speed up the pace of decision making and usher in a stable policy regime.
As far as improvement in ease of doing and ensuring a predictable taxation regime are concerned, the Finance Minister said "these are work in progress".
On investment opportunities in India, Jaitley said: "There is a lot of space in the infrastructure sector... Like roads, ports, railways and clean energy."
He also expressed hope that the target of raising Indo-US bilateral trade to USD 500 billion from USD 100 billion currently would be achieved in the next few years.
Referring to the ongoing global financial turmoil in stock, currency and commodity markets, Jaitley said it has made the task of policymakers difficult and "there is not an easy moment or a day".
Verma, in his address, said the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US has created a lot of excitement in California. He will be the second Indian Prime Minister to visit California after Jawaharlal Nehru.
He said the visit of Modi would be instrumental in taking the bilateral ties between India and US to a new level.
Jaitley said in the current age of global turmoil, India needs to make fundamentals of economy "extremely sound".
"It is extremely important that we utilise the current opportunities in strengthening parameters of real economy... there is no reason why we should not be able to do that," he added.
He said global adversities in terms of low oil and commodities prices are working in favour of India because it has reduced the import bill of the country.
"Today globally, it's in oil, it's in commodities that the world market is adversely impacted and this adverse impact is not going to be adverse on India. It will be favourable to India because we are net importers of these commodities. Therefore, the low price regime does not necessarily hurt us," he said.
"It helps us in saving a large part of resources and diverting a big part of the resources in the area where we have to divert... Therefore, the emphasis has been to use the present global and fiscal situation that allows us to divert a large part of our national resources to infrastructure, highways, railway and irrigation. These sectors are where we are making an emphasis," he said.
On investment opportunities in India, Jaitley said: "There is a lot of space in the infrastructure sector... Like roads, ports, railways and clean energy."
Besides, he said, there is an opportunity in defence and manufacturing.
Referring to the ongoing global financial turmoil in stock, currency and commodity markets, the minister said it has made the task of policymakers difficult and "there is not an easy moment or easy day".
Verma, in his address, said the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US has created a lot of excitement in California. He will be the second Indian Prime Minister to visit California after Jawaharlal Nehru.
He said the visit of Modi would be instrumental in taking bilateral ties between India and US to a new level.
