America
Jaitley urges US investors to come to India without delay
San Francisco, June 24
Urging US investors to invest in India without delay, Indian Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said his government's lack of
majority in the upper house of parliament does not lead to indefinite
delays in legislation like that for reforming the indirect tax regime.
"The
lack of majority in the Rajya Sabha does not lead to indefinite delays
and, in fact, there are no precedents of permanent hold up," Jaitley
told investors at a roundtable here organized by the Confederation of
Indian Industry (CII) and Kotak.
According to the CII, the event
featured some of the biggest funds in the US including Calpers, Townsend
Group, Regents of the University of California, Hall Capital Partners,
Stanford Management Company, J Paul Grey Trust, Dodge & Cox,
Franklin Templeton, Standard Pacific and Think Investments.
The collective value of the assets under the management of the investors at the event is upwards of $1 trillion, CII said.
The
bill for a goods and services tax (GST), which the government wants to
implement by April 1, 2016, was sent last month to a select committee of
the Rajya Sabha, which will table its report in the upper house on the
last day of the first week of next parliament session.
The GST
is seen as the key to facilitating industrial growth and improving the
country's business climate. By subsuming most indirect taxes levied by
the central and state governments such as excise duty, service tax, VAT
and sales tax, the new regime proposes to facilitate a common market
across the country, leading to economies of scale and reducing inflation
through an efficient supply chain.
The passage of the bill to become a law is a lengthy process.
Being
a constitution amendment bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha, it
needs to be passed by the Rajya Sabha with a two-thirds majority and
then ratified by at least 15 state legislatures before being sent for
the president's assent.
Meanwhile, at a "diaspora interaction"
organised by CII near here on Tuesday, Jaitley said the Indian diaspora
in Silicon Valley are the best brand ambassadors of India's
transformation on the world stage.