India will ensure economic fundamentals remain strong: Arun Jaitley

5 Dariya News

New Delhi 17-Sep-2015

Ahead of the much-awaited monetary policy update by the US Federal Reserve on Thursday, India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the country's economic fundamentals will be kept strong through appropriate policy interventions to meet eventualities and keep attracting investments."In such a situation where there is turmoil almost by the day in global markets, we are trying to make the fundamentals of our own economy strong so our ability to resist these changes can substantially improve," Jaitley said."Without investment, there is going to be no additional economic activity," he told the India Economic Convention organised here by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).The remarks come just ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee of the US meeting on Thursday to review the interest rate regime, which the global financial markets, including India, are watching very keenly.

If there is a hike in interest rates -- for the first time since 2006 -- many analysts fear there could be a flight of capital away from emerging market economies like India to the US, since investments there could become more attractive.Jaitley also said that with the stated objective towards ease of doing business, all tax disputes will be resolved over the next few days."Since May 2014, a number of tax disputes have been put to rest since the BJP government took office," the finance minister said, alluding to the issue of retrospective taxation on capital gains."We are trying over the next few days itself (to look at pending disputes) so that many others can be put to sleep either by a judicial resolution or an executive resolution," he added.