Jaitley calls for credibility in terms of governance

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said the country must have credibility in terms of governance, adding that it is important to learn as to why people stopped investing in India.

"It is important lesson to learn as to why people stopped investing in India. India is perhaps the largest democracy in the world. In terms of governance, we must have credibility. It is time we go out of the traditional mindset phase. I have always believed that that the Government of India must be led always by a political leader of stature," Jaitley said.

"In democracies, it is always the Prime Minister who has the last word. The Prime Minister must be decisive. He must be willing to take consequences of whatever he decides. You cannot create structures outside the government which have an ability to over-rule the Prime Minister," he added.

Jaitley asserted that the issue of growth and development has to rise above politics.

"The fact that state after state now are trying to hold investors' conferences is a great sign for Indian democracy. Late last year, the Madhya Pradesh had it, the West Bengal Government had it last Monday," he said.

"In order to attract investment, direction must be clear and the pace of moving in that direction must be reasonably quick," he added.

Jaitley also said the present government is determined to have a perfectly non-adversarial tax regime.

"In the last seven months we have opened up several areas of investment; the insurance bill was pending for a long time. Something which had scared investors away was a highly adversarial tax regime in India," he added.

"The coal problem from 2006-14 was eased out with one ordinance. It was allotted in an arbitrary manner which the Supreme Court and Comptroller and Auditor General also believed," he added.