Appropriate action to tackle economic slowdown soon, says Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said that the government was analysing the economic situation amidst an economic slowdown and "appropriate action" would be announced soon to address the issue.

"From day one, this is a proactive government. We are analysing the economic indicators and appropriate action will be taken at right time. There is a problem of private investment. The government has seized the issue. Very soon you will hear from us," Jaitley said here while addressing the second "India Investor Summit" organised by JP Morgan.

"Banks have done excessive lending in the past. Proposal of capital adequacy of the banks is also on the table," he added.

Jaitley had chaired a high-level meeting on September 19 to review the economic situation and discuss measures. The meeting was attended by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and Secretaries in the Finance Ministry -- Ashok Lavasa, Subhash Chandra Garg, Hasmukh Adhia, Rajiv Kumar and Neeraj Kumar Gupta.

The government is said to be considering a financial stimulus package following a sharp fall in latest key macro indicators such as the gross domestic product (GDP) and industrial production as well as a widening current account deficit.

Pulled down by sluggish manufacturing, growth in the Indian economy in the first quarter of this fiscal fell to 5.7 per cent, clocking the lowest GDP growth rate since Narendra Modi took power in May 2014.

Talking on divestment, Jaitley said that the government had an ambitious target in the current fiscal.

"Even today (on Thursday), we have Air India divestment meeting. In the last few years, the market was quite volatile at times, so the government had to wait for the right time for divestment. As far as divestment is concerned, we never had any reservations about privatisation," he said.

Touching upon the issue of technical glitches under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Finance Minister advised the traders to file their returns four to five days in advance before the due date to avoid last minute problems.

As far as bringing more items under the GST is concerned, he said that real estate would be the easiest to bring in.