Private sector capex has taken off, says Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
Nirmala Sitharaman said, while exuding confidence that India will be able to manage the spillovers of high US interest rates.
In a freewheeling interview with ET, Sitharaman said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will return to power in 2024 with «good numbers» as the government had delivered on its promises.
She said that while some items may be experiencing inflation, «broad-basket inflation» was steady, and RBI was looking at the country's needs rather than syncing its activities with other central banks.
Some individual commodities may be seeing a price surge and «all the perishables, and also vegetables, because they are all short-duration, and because of the way the monsoon (has progressed)...it (inflation) can see recurrence,» the finance minister said.
«But overall, I think the basket itself is steady,» she said, adding that most central banks are becoming more considerate of growth-related concerns.
Responding to a question on private sector investment, the finance minister said the buzz at last week's B20 summit couldn't have happened if Indian companies were still hesitating. «No, they now want to actively be in the game, also become big players — big, meaningful and impactful players, each according to their size.»
«I think the Indian private sector has come into the game...investors are coming forward, industry is coming forward,» she said, emphatically asserting that private sector capex had taken off.
«We can think in terms of looking at (GST) rate rationalisation because once you do that it will actually benefit the user, make it simpler for the system and certainly not give room for gaming the system»
'Central bank looking at needs of domestic economy'
Sitharaman said the economy will do well in the next
