FM asks trade unions to help GDP grow by additional 1.5%

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday appealed to labour unions to support the government in its efforts to achieve an additional 1-1.5 per cent gross domestic product growth and in return promised to help the unions in achieving their demands.

The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the trade union affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, felicitated Jaitley and other ministers of the government’s inter-ministerial council for looking into the demands of labour unions.

Jaitley said India needed to grow by additional 1-1.5 per cent over and above the current 7-7.5 per cent for the government to increase its revenue and offset the burden of Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) from the implementation of ‘one rank one pension’ and the Rs 1.02 lakh crore (Rs 1.02 trillion) after the acceptance of the seventh pay commission recommendations.

‘GST as a smokescreen’

The Congress on Wednesday said the Central government was using the goods and services tax issue as a smokescreen to hide its failures on the economic front.

Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said the 19-month old Narendra Modi government had “failed on all fronts” and was interested only in pursuing vendetta politics.

Image: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Photograph: Reuters