Fiscal disciplining required to put economy back on track: Arun Jaitley

Srinagar: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said fiscal disciplining is required to put the economy of the country back on tracks as India has witnessed two successive years of sub-five per cent growth.     

"At this time, you will require to take some decisions to make sure that the economy is put back on the track," Jaitley, who is on a two-day visit to Kashmir for security review      meetings as Defence Minister, told reporters here. The Finance Minister said initial amount of fiscal disciplining will enable India and its people to enjoy fruits  of sounder economy at a subsequent stage.     

"But any kind of fiscal indiscipline at this stage will  put us in further doldrums," he added. Jaitely said the situation on the economic front was challenging. "We had two continuous years of less than 5 per cent growth. You had higher level of inflation. Your tax buoyancy has come down," he said.

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi had warned of  ‘tough decisions’ over the next couple of years to improve the country's financial health, which he said may not go down well      with some sections, and attacked the way the previous UPA   government had handled the economy. "Taking tough decisions and strong measures in the coming one or two years are needed to bring financial discipline which will restore and boost the country's self-confidence", he had said addressing BJP workers in Mumbai.    

India's economic growth remained below the 5 per cent mark at 4.7 per cent in 2013-14. It remained subdued at 4.6 er cent in the fourth quarter of 2013-14 and during the      entire fiscal, mainly due to a decline in manufacturing and mining output. The country's economy, or gross domestic product (GDP), had expanded at 4.5 per cent in 2012-13, the slowest pace in the previous decade.