Shri Jaitley also participates in G-20 Finance Ministers and
Central Bank Governors Meeting, BRICS Ministers and Central Bank Governors
Meeting and BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) Board of Governors’ Meeting.
The Union
Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley participated in the Sixth Annual Ministerial
Meeting of India- US Economic and Financial Partnership (EFP) in Washington
D.C. yesterday. The meeting took stock of the concerted efforts
undertaken by both sides to deepen mutual understanding and to improve
cooperation across a wide range of bilateral and multilateral issues.
The two sides noted the significant progress made in resolving bilateral tax
disputes between the United States and India. Progress has also been made in
sharing of financial information between the two countries under the
Inter-Governmental Agreement, pursuant to Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act
(FATCA). The Finance Minister underscored that Financial Action Task
Force (FATF) must ensure effective implementation of legislation in various
countries relating to terrorist financing and take concrete action against
countries sponsoring terrorism and hosting terrorist infrastructure. The FATF
must also address offshore tax evasion and avoidance including through tax
havens.
The US offered support for India’s National Investment and Infrastructure
Fund (NIIF) to increase financing options for India’s infrastructure growth and
expressed interest in further discussions in areas such as municipal finance.
The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley also participated in G-20 Finance Ministers
and Central Bank Governors meeting, BRICS Ministers and Central Bank Governors
meeting and BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) Board of Governors meeting.
In his interventions, inter alia, the Finance Minister highlighted
that even as India has consistently recorded the highest growth figures among
large economies in the world for the last three quarters, global growth
continues to remain sluggish and has witnessed recurring downward revisions.
Weak demand, tighter financial markets, softening trade and volatile capital
flows are key headwinds to robust global recovery. Further, the efficacy of
monetary policy instruments has reached its limits and that its pass through
has not been seamless. Global and regional financial safety net and oversight
need to be augmented, including through new financing mechanisms. He emphasized
the need for globally co-ordinated policy actions to address the global
economic turbulence.
The Finance Minister, chaired the BRICS FMs and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG)
meeting and discussed issues of common concern of member countries, viz.,
global economy, structural reforms, voice reform of IMF and World Bank and
other new and ongoing initiatives. The Finance Minister expressed satisfaction
that two key initiatives of BRICS, viz., Contingent Reserve Arrangement and New
Development Bank (NDB) have become fully operational. Deliberations were held
on efficacy of establishment of New Development Bank Institute and BRICS rating
agency. It was decided that a technical working group would examine the issues
in detail and present their findings to the BRICS Finance Ministers and Central
Bank Governors in their next meeting.
The Finance Minister complimented Mr K.V. Kamath, President NDB, and his team
for the quick pace with which the Bank has commenced its activity, a sentiment
which was, thereafter, echoed by other members of the Board of Governors of
NDB. The Board of Governors of NDB noted that the Bank has commenced operations
through approval of the maiden projects on April 13, 2016. The NDB has approved
four green renewable energy projects from India, China, Brazil and South Africa
entailing Bank financing of USD 811 million. The project from India entails
provisioning of multi tranche loan of USD 250 million to Canara Bank for
onlending to Renewable Energy Projects. The project will result in generation
of 500 MW of renewal energy and savings of about 800,000 tonnes of carbon
emissions.
The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley also held a bilateral meeting with Mr. Lou
Jiwei, Finance Minister of China and discussed areas of mutual collaboration
and commonality of their positions in various multilateral fora.
The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley is currently on official tour to
Washington D.C. to attend the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank, Board of Governors meeting of New Development Bank and
other associated meetings. He is accompanied by Dr. Raghuram Rajan, Governor
RBI, Shri Shaktikanta Das, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA),
Dr.Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) and other officers.
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DSM