Finance Minister promises more reforms, privatisation of loss making PSUs

Assuring a transparent and rule-based policy environment, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley promised reforms in labour, land acquisition and insurance laws to make regulations in India more business-friendly. Terming reforms as a long journey, Finance Minister added that the government is of the view of consistently pursuing the reforms agenda to boost the economic growth rather than taking one or two big bang steps.

By adding further, Arun Jaitley said that the government has introduced some labour reforms in Parliament which will be discussed in the upcoming winter session. The government is looking at changing some illogical provisions of land acquisition laws that have made it virtually impossible for companies to acquire land for industrial projects. On insurance sector, Jaitley expressed hope that the long-pending Insurance Amendment Bill, that seeks to raise FDI in the sector from existing 26 percent to 49 percent, will get Parliament nod in the upcoming Winter Session.

Finance Minister also stressed that the government may privatize some loss making public sector units (PSUs). India has 79 loss making PSUs, of which 49 are sick enterprises. On ambitious divestment programme, Jaitley said the government would push ahead with divestment of its stake in state-owned firms but will retain majority stake in such companies.