The Modi government has put amendments to the Land Acquisition Act top on agenda to perk up the economy.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said the Modi government would go ahead with the changes to land law even in absence of political consensus.
Jaitley, who has begun consultations for his first full-fledged Budget, also send a message to the common man of not pursuing an “ultra-aggressive” tax policy.
Observing that Indian economy was facing challenges, he pitched for “a reasonable and rational tax policy”. “It can’t be ultra aggressive with the tax payers,” Jaitley said at the India Global Forum meet, hosted here by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Jaitley’s remarks on the land law amendments are an indication of the issue turning out to be a political controversy. The Congress has said it would assiduously guard the laws passed during its regime, particularly the social welfare initiatives such as the land law and the rural jobs scheme.
The Centre has received complaints from several state governments that law had hurt the process of land acquisition for several infrastructure projects.
Jaitley also said the government’s disinvestment programme would “unfold” in the next couple of days. He added the government aim was to bring down its equity in public sector banks to 52 per cent.
“Economy was and is in a challenging situation and one of the principle challenges before us is to restore the confidence in the Indian economy, to expand economic activity and move towards increasing the growth rate,” he said.