Banks will go all out to recover money from Mallya: FM

Finance Minister says govt agencies are going to take strong action against Mallya wherever he has violated the law

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday asserted that banks were going all out to recover every penny given to Vijay Mallya, who has left the country without repaying the loans to Kingifsher Airlines totalling more than Rs 9,000 crore.

At the India Today conclave, the Finance Minister said the Mallya case is pending in court and every government agency is going to take strong action wherever he has violated the law.

Referring to the goods and services tax (GST), Jaitley said all parties had a consensus on it, which itself is a "great sign". The government is planning to bring a constitution amendment Bill on GST in the second half of the Budget session which would begin from the latter half of April. The session went into a recess from Thursday.

The Finance Minister said that in the current global environment, achieving double digit growth is extremely difficult. The finance ministry has pegged economic growth at 7-7.75% for 2016-17. Advance estimates have projected the economy to grow 7.6% in the current financial year. 

The minister said the emphasis on rural and agriculture in the Budget 2016 was the need of the hour as the country has not seen bad monsoons for the two consecutive years in the last 100 years.