5 Major Achievements Of Arun Jaitley As India’s Finance Minister: The ‘Troubleshooter’ Of Modi Govt.

Arun Jaitley, India’s ex finance minister, and an important leader in the PM Modi Govt. has passed away today, on Saturday.

He was 66.

Since few days, he was admitted in the AIIMS following complaints of breathlessness and restlessness, and was declared haemodynamically stable since August 9th.

But his condition deteriorated, and the hospital was not able to provide any health bulletin since last few days.

He was the ‘troubleshooter’ Finance Minister in the Modi Govt. between 2014 and 2019, and in his tenure, some of the biggest economic reforms and decisions were taken, which paved the path for economic growth in the country.

And will continue to do so in the years to come.

Here are 5 major achievements of Arun Jaitley, as India’s Finance Minister:

Goods and Services Tax (GST)

The nation-wide implementation of GST will be considered as one of the biggest achievements of Arun Jaitley as Finance Minister. 

Taking all the states on board, and convincing them of the power of single-nation, single-tax was an extraordinary achievement, and Arun did it.

Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC)

Technically, and financially, the whole idea and execution of IBC is seen a bigger, much more powerful financial legislation than GST in its overall impact.

Via IBC, Arun Jaitley created a robust and systematic framework for handling bankruptcies, and Rs 70,000 crore was recovered via IBC in 2019 alone. 

Bank Consolidation

Under the watch of Arun Jaitley, and his planning, some of the biggest banking consolidation took place in India: Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank merged with Bank of Baroda, meanwhile, 5 Associate banks & Bharatiya Mahila Bank merged with SBI.

No other Finance Minister even dared to think of such massive consolidation of Govt banks, and this was an extraordinary decision which helped save trillions of rupees for the Govt. 

Macro Stabilisation

When Arun Jaitley became India’s Finance Minister, be inherited a weak economy, India was counted among the Fragile Five group of nations for handling macros.

Under his impeccable leadership, India jumped into the Bright Spark group for stabilizing macros, and putting India into the right path.

FDI Liberalization

Liberating FDI from strict rules was a process which Arun Jaitley carried on, and under his leadership, India eased several FDI policies in the sectors of Defense, Insurance and Aviation, which helped India get billions of dollars in FDI, which was not possible.

Demonetisation was another big decision under Arun Jaitley, which helped India recover blakc money, and unleash a new chapter in financial policies.

He was known for bringing in innovation in Budget speeches, included Railways Budget in the main budget, and more.

He will always be remembered, and respected due to his clarity of thoughts, and firm determination. 

RIP.