Gandhinagar, DeshGujarat

Addressing a Global CEO Conclave at PDPU in Gandhinagar, Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley in his opening remark recalled how the first Vibrant Summit was organized in a small hall.

On Vibrant Gujarat Summit

He said, “In the first Vibrant Gujarat Summit in year 2003, I was Commerce and Industry minister in then Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet. It was held in a small conference hall, but then Gujarat was fortunate to have a Chief Minister like Narendra Modi ji at that time who pursued and pushed for changes and improvements.”

Shri Jaitley further said, “this summit has become the principal opportunity for all to assemble together and discuss how the economy of this region is to be built and this has resulted into actions.”

On GST

During the interaction with CEOs, Shri Jaitley said, “we are on track. We will make uniformity between goods and services and will eliminate state biases to make it win-win for all”.

In response to a question by Mr Kunal Bahl, on the challenges faced due to differing state level taxes, Finance Minister shared certain facts about the proposed GST. He said the government has a target of April 2016 for roll-out and the IT back bone is being worked out. He said, we have consensus on the need for uniformity, wherever things are not in agreement, the FM is personally speaking to the chief ministers.

On Banking sector

On the banking sector, Shri Jaitley said, “our banking sector, for a large extent, is public sector and the current government’s policy is to give them as much autonomy as possible. Challenge is not that the executives are not well trained but there are in built limitations of public sector. Private sector can afford to act but public sector doesn’t have this freedom due to legal reasons.”

Shri Jaitley was asked different questions by participants. Some of them are following:

-Mukesh Ambani asked Arun Jaitley: How can we support growth and job creation as industry?

-Deepak Parekh asked: How to get single window clearance for housing projects as currently 40-50 such approvals are required?

-R.K. Pauchari said: I want to follow up on what has already been said. We need long term view of critical challenges India is going to face. Considering climate change we need to move towards less polluting sources and govt needs to spearhead it.

-Question from Victor: My question is about Corporate Social Responsibility act in India and the requirement that companies contribute to it. What is going to be governments take on it?

-Piysuh Gupta, CEO, DBS Bank to Shri Jaitley: Think east and ASEAN is a particular areas are worth focusing attention on. 2015 is important as ASEAN comes together as a single entity. It could be a significant source of capital for India and help Make in India. Indian banks can work well in ASEAN. Since China is slowing down, ASEAN needs India to pitch in. This would need substantial amount of focus. Things like single point of focus and strategy to market to ASEAN would be helpful.

-Kunal Behl, CEO, Snapdeal to Shri Arun Jaitley: Our company has 100,000 merchants who sell and have created several jobs. Different interpretation of tax laws in stages cause tremendous challenges. Love to hear your thoughts on it as it will encourage entrepreneurship in India.