New Delhi: A day after rating agencies Moody's and Fitch expressed concerns over the economy and the business environment, the government today said that India is a bright spot and has put in place a "very robust" macroeconomic foundation for growth in the coming years.
The country, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said, is prepared to deal with the aftermath of the Greek crisis.
"We have been able to put in place a very robust macroeconomic foundation for growth going forward. Macroeconomic indicators were very very toxic.
"Despite the global volatility that we are seeing right now, India is a rare bright spot. So, we have addressed underlying macroeconomic instability that we had. We have put in place road map of reforms," he said at an IVCA
(Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association) event here.
Elaborating further, the minister said that the government will focus on executing three important agenda -- banking reforms, GST and macro-economic stability -- in the remaining 3-4 years.
"Now our focus has shifted very much to execution agenda for remaining 3-4 years. We will have to push this forward. We will have to focus on execution agenda," he said.
Yesterday, global rating agency Moody's raised concerns about policy stagnation and "some disappointment" over the pace of reforms under the Modi government. Another agency Fitch, lowered India's growth forecast to 7.8 per cent for the current fiscal citing country's weak business environment compared to its peers.
Sinha said the finance ministry has entered into a landmark agreement with RBI on monetary policy.
He noted that the macroeconomic stability as far as our execution agenda is concern is very important.
The government, the Minister said, is working very hard on pushing public investment and has provided Gross Budgetary Support to infrastructure projects.
Sinha said the government will provide significant boost to domestic capital investment fund.
"We have to set up domestic alternative investment fund and because my own thinking is that if we will have domestic alternative investment fund then we will have more Indian products," he said.
Speaking on the same occasion, Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das said that the government is very proactive in solving issues of private equity and venture capital.
Citing the example of AIF and other PE issue, the secretary said that "CBDT has issued and is going to issue" circulars and guidelines "on the issues which were not covered on the Budget".
"So the government today is very proactive in terms of decision making and very fast decision making," Das said.
The Revenue Secretary said there is lot of exchange of information taking place between Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).
Das said that last year, the Revenue Department had identified 35 lakh assesses who had not filed Income Tax return and the department had sent notices to them.
And out of those 35 lakh assesses, 25 lakh assesses have started filing Income Tax return and paying taxes.
The Secretary further said that Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) issue with the US has been resolved and framework now has been finalised.
MAP is an alternative available to taxpayers for solving disputes giving rise to double taxation, whether judicial or financial. The MAP procedures are also listed in the DTAA protocol.
