Writing about a tall personality like the former finance minister and BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley is trying to describe a big tree in its entirety. There are aspects which you know and do not.

Writing about a tall personality like the former finance minister and BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley is trying to describe a big tree in its entirety. There are aspects which you know and do not. It becomes even more difficult for journalists because how much close you may think you are to a politician, there are always aspects of them which are unavailable to you. You only get to understand them better over time with more and more interactions. You can write a book on the suave politician Arun Jaitley but today I will write about two of his facets. I came into touch with Arun Jaitley in 2009 when he became the Leader of Opposition. I was not the BJP beat reporter but had an intense desire to understand what was happening in BJP after having lost two consecutive Lok Sabha elections. Though I was faintly aware of Arun Jaitley’s class, it was in 2009 that I understood what it meant for journalists. It was not that I was an unknown to him but when I walked inside his room in the Parliament Office full of BJP beat reporters for the first time, he looked at me and said,” Did you lose your way inside Parliament.” I said, ''No sir'' and added ''I just wanted to attend your off-record briefing”. I cannot say what went across his mind but for the next five years, till 2014, I always managed to attend his briefing without feeling unwanted and getting the feeling that I’m an undesired presence. Yes, he met journalists separately, one to one, who knew him for a long time, but it never became a hindrance to me to approach him on any issue. To put the record straight, his off the record briefings were educative. Many a time journalists would joke and ask, what story did he plant in the media the previous day. But for him, very few leaders would take time to explain the nuance of Parliamentary procedures to journalists both on and off record. His briefings would be divided into two parts --one, as I said, was inside his room and the other took place inside the Central Hall. Those interactions used to be even more free-wheeling in the presence of senior journalists and members of Parliament cutting across the party. Today, very few Parliamentarians and ministers take time to talk to journalists. Arun Jaitley, even after becoming a minister would take time out to talk to the press which would educate them on various issues. Writing today on this issue makes it look like a trivial detail of someone’s life but ask any journalist covering Parliament and he/she would only say how precious those interactions were. Jaitley was a man of many facets rolled into one -- foodie, lawyer, politician, backroom master, orator, good Parliamentarian and most important of all a person who never left his middle-class moorings. Almost like Sushma ji who passed away recently, Jaitley, if know you him personally would always care to ask you about your family and general well-being. I had the honour of knowing him but in the last 10 years as a journalist, I had the opportunity to meet him personally on numerous occasion. The proprietor of the last firm I had worked and me shared similar name. I would land up with calls from high and mighty regularly. It continues till today but is a trickle now. Two years back, I landed a call from Arun ji and I immediately realized in a minute that the conversation wasn’t meant for me. When I politely told him, that it wasn’t me and it is the fourth time he has mistaken me for him, he said,” You change your name. This cannot go on.” Feeling deeply hurt, I said,” Why should I change my name. My father has lovingly named me.” There was an awkward silence for few seconds and then he said, ''Gussa kyon ho raha hai, chalo is bahane tumse bhi baat ho jatee hai (Why are you getting angry. At least, in this way I get to talk to you)''. It was not the last time we spoke. Subsequently, I spoke to him many times, but never got a wrong call from him again. This was Arun Jaitley.

Arun Jaitley -- A suave politician who shared excellent rapport with journalists

BJP Manifesto 2019: BJP Manifesto rooted in Indian reality, says Arun Jaitley

Ruling out referring the Rafale deal to a parliamentary panel, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Sunday launched a blistering attack on the Congress, calling it "bad losers" and said the CAG's view of the deal is not relevant after the Supreme Court's clean chit.&nbsp;

With the first four days of the winter session of Parliament washed out over various protests, Jaitley said the opposition Congress will prefer disruptions over discussion on Rafale during the remainder of the session.

The Congress, which was not a petitioner before the apex court, wants the Rafale deal to be referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to go into the price arrived at by the BJP government versus the one negotiated by the previous UPA regime, as also how billionaire Anil Ambani's group with virtually no experience in manufacture of fighter jets was selected as an offset partner for the deal.

"After the Supreme Court has spoken the last word, it gets legitimacy. A political body can never come to a finding contrary to what the Court has said," Jaitley wrote in a Facebook blog, titled 'Rafale - Lies, Shortlived lies and now further lies?'.

On the Congress claiming 'ambiguity' in the Supreme Court judgment that said the deal has been examined by the CAG and is now before Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Jaitley said defence transactions go to the CAG for an audit review, which then are referred to the PAC.

"This was factually and accurately stated by the Government before the Court. The audit review of Rafale is pending before the CAG. All facts are shared with it. When its report is out, it will go to the PAC. Notwithstanding this factually correct statement made, if an ambiguity has emerged in the Court Order, the correct course is for anyone to apply / mention before the Court and have it corrected," he said.

The correct picture has been presented to the court and it must now be left to the wisdom of the court to state at which stage the CAG review is pending.

"The CAG review is not relevant to the final findings on procedure, pricing and offset suppliers. But bad losers never accept the truth. Having failed in multiple lies they have now started an innuendo about the Judgement," he said.

Jaitley said Congress, having failed in their initial falsehood, is now "manufacturing further lies about the Judgement."

"On facts it lied. The judgement of the Supreme Court conclusively establishes the Congress party's vulnerabilities in a discussion on defence transactions.

"It will be a great opportunity to remind the nation of the legacy of the Congress Party and its defence acquisitions - a great opportunity indeed for some of us to speak," he wrote.

The finance minister, who had alongside the defence minister led a spirited counter-attack against the Congress on Friday post the Supreme Court ruling, said the opponents of the Rafale deal had a choice of forum to present their side, and they chose the Supreme Court.

"The Court conducts a judicial review, it is a non-partisan, independent and a fair Constitutional authority. The Court's verdict is final. It can't be reviewed by anyone except by the Court itself," he said.&nbsp;

Ruling out setting up a JPC to go into the deal, Jaitley said, "How can a Parliamentary Committee go into the correctness or otherwise to what the Court has said. Is a Committee of Politicians both legally and in terms of human resources capable of reviewing issues already decided by the Supreme Court?"

"On areas such as procedure, offset suppliers and pricing, can a Parliamentary Committee take a different view of what the Court has said?," he said, asking if a contract be breached, nation's security be compromised and the pricing data be made available to Parliament or its panel.

He asked what was the experience of JPC when it took up the Bofors deal -- the only occasion when it investigated a defence transaction.

"The B. Shankaranand Committee in 1987-88 went into the Bofors transaction. Since Parliamentarians are always split on party lines, it came out with a finding that no kickbacks were paid and the monies paid to the middlemen were 'winding up' charges.

"At that time only Win Chaddha appeared to be a middlemen. But then others including Ottavio Quattrocchi, whose bank accounts got detected subsequently, were not entitled to any winding up charges," he wrote.&nbsp; 
Rafale, he said, is a combat aircraft with its weaponry required to improve the strike ability of the Indian Air Force.

"As a political opponent Rahul Gandhi's opposition to the deal was a desperate attempt. It was the UPA Government which had shortlisted the Rafale as it was technically the best and the cheapest," he said.

Jaitley also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an inter-governmental agreement, struck a deal with the French government to further improve the terms and conditions, including the prices on which the UPA had agreed.

He claimed Gandhi's opposition was because Modi has run the cleanest ever government in recent Indian history.&nbsp;

"Secondly, Rahul Gandhi has the burden of a stigmatised legacy which was tainted by Bofors. He was desperately trying to bring an 'immoral equivalence' between Rafale and Bofors. But Rafale did not have middlemen, no kickbacks and obviously no Ottavio Quattrocchi," he said.&nbsp;

"Thirdly, with international cooperation and Governmental cooperation, scamsters of the UPA Government are now being extradited into India. There is obviously a scare of who will talk how much," he said. PTI ANZ ABM 12161654

Ruling out referring the Rafale deal to a parliamentary panel, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Sunday launched a blistering attack on the Congress, calling it "bad losers" and said the CAG's view of the deal is not relevant after the Supreme Court's clean chit.

Ruling out referring the Rafale deal to a parliamentary panel, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Sunday launched a blistering attack on the Congress, calling it "bad losers" and said the CAG's view of the deal is not relevant after the Supreme Court's clean chit. With the first four days of the winter session of Parliament washed out over various protests, Jaitley said the opposition Congress will prefer disruptions over discussion on Rafale during the remainder of the session. The Congress, which was not a petitioner before the apex court, wants the Rafale deal to be referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to go into the price arrived at by the BJP government versus the one negotiated by the previous UPA regime, as also how billionaire Anil Ambani's group with virtually no experience in manufacture of fighter jets was selected as an offset partner for the deal. "After the Supreme Court has spoken the last word, it gets legitimacy. A political body can never come to a finding contrary to what the Court has said," Jaitley wrote in a Facebook blog, titled 'Rafale - Lies, Shortlived lies and now further lies?'. On the Congress claiming 'ambiguity' in the Supreme Court judgment that said the deal has been examined by the CAG and is now before Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Jaitley said defence transactions go to the CAG for an audit review, which then are referred to the PAC. "This was factually and accurately stated by the Government before the Court. The audit review of Rafale is pending before the CAG. All facts are shared with it. When its report is out, it will go to the PAC. Notwithstanding this factually correct statement made, if an ambiguity has emerged in the Court Order, the correct course is for anyone to apply / mention before the Court and have it corrected," he said. The correct picture has been presented to the court and it must now be left to the wisdom of the court to state at which stage the CAG review is pending. "The CAG review is not relevant to the final findings on procedure, pricing and offset suppliers. But bad losers never accept the truth. Having failed in multiple lies they have now started an innuendo about the Judgement," he said. Jaitley said Congress, having failed in their initial falsehood, is now "manufacturing further lies about the Judgement." "On facts it lied. The judgement of the Supreme Court conclusively establishes the Congress party's vulnerabilities in a discussion on defence transactions. "It will be a great opportunity to remind the nation of the legacy of the Congress Party and its defence acquisitions - a great opportunity indeed for some of us to speak," he wrote. The finance minister, who had alongside the defence minister led a spirited counter-attack against the Congress on Friday post the Supreme Court ruling, said the opponents of the Rafale deal had a choice of forum to present their side, and they chose the Supreme Court. "The Court conducts a judicial review, it is a non-partisan, independent and a fair Constitutional authority. The Court's verdict is final. It can't be reviewed by anyone except by the Court itself," he said. Ruling out setting up a JPC to go into the deal, Jaitley said, "How can a Parliamentary Committee go into the correctness or otherwise to what the Court has said. Is a Committee of Politicians both legally and in terms of human resources capable of reviewing issues already decided by the Supreme Court?" "On areas such as procedure, offset suppliers and pricing, can a Parliamentary Committee take a different view of what the Court has said?," he said, asking if a contract be breached, nation's security be compromised and the pricing data be made available to Parliament or its panel. He asked what was the experience of JPC when it took up the Bofors deal -- the only occasion when it investigated a defence transaction. "The B. Shankaranand Committee in 1987-88 went into the Bofors transaction. Since Parliamentarians are always split on party lines, it came out with a finding that no kickbacks were paid and the monies paid to the middlemen were 'winding up' charges. "At that time only Win Chaddha appeared to be a middlemen. But then others including Ottavio Quattrocchi, whose bank accounts got detected subsequently, were not entitled to any winding up charges," he wrote. Rafale, he said, is a combat aircraft with its weaponry required to improve the strike ability of the Indian Air Force. "As a political opponent Rahul Gandhi's opposition to the deal was a desperate attempt. It was the UPA Government which had shortlisted the Rafale as it was technically the best and the cheapest," he said. Jaitley also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an inter-governmental agreement, struck a deal with the French government to further improve the terms and conditions, including the prices on which the UPA had agreed. He claimed Gandhi's opposition was because Modi has run the cleanest ever government in recent Indian history. "Secondly, Rahul Gandhi has the burden of a stigmatised legacy which was tainted by Bofors. He was desperately trying to bring an 'immoral equivalence' between Rafale and Bofors. But Rafale did not have middlemen, no kickbacks and obviously no Ottavio Quattrocchi," he said. "Thirdly, with international cooperation and Governmental cooperation, scamsters of the UPA Government are now being extradited into India. There is obviously a scare of who will talk how much," he said. PTI ANZ ABM 12161654

Arun Jaitley rules out setting up JPC on Rafale deal

How India jumped to 77th rank in ease of doing business from 100th in last 12 months

Indian finance minister Arun Jaitey speaks on India climbing 23 points up in ease of doing business

Identifying real estate as the one sector where maximum amount of tax evasion takes place, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said there was a strong case to bring it under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). 
 
The matter will be discussed in the next meeting of the GST Council, which will be held on November 9, in Guwahati, Arun Jaitley said, while delivering a lecture at Harvard University. 
 
&quot;The one sector in India where maximum amount of tax evasion and cash generation takes place and which is still outside the GST is real estate. Some of the states have been pressing for it. I personally believe that there is a strong case to bring real estate into the GST,&quot; Jaitley said, while delivering the &#39;Annual Mahindra Lecture&#39; on India&#39;s tax reforms. 
 
&quot;In the next meeting itself, we are addressing one of the problem areas or at least (having) discussion (on) it. Some states want, some do not. There are two views. Therefore, by discussion, we would try to reach one view,&quot; he said. 
 
The finance minister said the move would benefit the consumers who will only have to pay one &quot;final tax&quot; on the whole product. 
 
&quot;As a result, the final tax paid on the whole product in the GST would almost be negligible,&quot; he said. 
 
The finance minister said the reduction in eventual expenditure coupled with incentivising people to enter the tax net may also help reduce the size of &quot;shadow economy&quot;. 
 
A 12 per cent GST is levied on construction of a complex, building, civil structure or intended for sale to a buyer, wholly or partly. However, land and other immovable property have been exempted from GST. 
 
On demonetisation, Jaitley said it was a &quot;fundamental reform&quot; which was necessary to transform India into a more tax-compliant society. 
 
&quot;If you see the long-term impact of it, demonetisation brought in more digitised transactions; it brought the issue to the centerstage. It expanded the individual tax base. It compressed the cash currency by three per cent which was operating in the market,&quot; Jaitley said. 
 
&quot;Those objectives are for the long-term. No doubt there are short-term challenges, but (necessary) for transforming India from a non-compliant to a more compliant society,&quot; he said. 
 
The finance minister said India had historically been one of the least efficient tax system in the world with an extremely small tax base. 
 
&quot;Frankly, over the last several decades, serious efforts, real efforts to expand this base had not been made. You had marginal efforts,&quot; he said, adding that systematic efforts to challenge the &quot;shadow economy&quot; were made only recently. 
 
&quot;In the last few years, the bulk of the increase in tax payers has not been in terms of number of companies but individuals who are coming into the tax net,&quot; he said. 
 
Mr Jaitley said some people had &quot;misunderstood&quot; the objective of demonetisation &quot;which wasn&#39;t to confiscate somebody&#39;s currency&quot;. 
 
&quot;Obviously if somebody has currency and deposits in the bank, it does not become lawful holding. They still have to account for it. Therefore, the anonymity which was attached to a cash currency came to an end and that holding got identified,&quot; he said. 
 
&quot;The government was able to trace out about 1.8 million people whose deposits are disproportionate to their normal incomes. And they are all to answerable to the law and pay their taxes,&quot; he said. 
 
Jaitley is on a week-long stay in the US, during which he will participate in annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.

The finance minister said real estate was the maximum sector where tax evasion took place

Identifying real estate as the one sector where maximum amount of tax evasion takes place, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said there was a strong case to bring it under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The matter will be discussed in the next meeting of the GST Council, which will be held on November 9, in Guwahati, Arun Jaitley said, while delivering a lecture at Harvard University. "The one sector in India where maximum amount of tax evasion and cash generation takes place and which is still outside the GST is real estate. Some of the states have been pressing for it. I personally believe that there is a strong case to bring real estate into the GST," Jaitley said, while delivering the 'Annual Mahindra Lecture' on India's tax reforms. "In the next meeting itself, we are addressing one of the problem areas or at least (having) discussion (on) it. Some states want, some do not. There are two views. Therefore, by discussion, we would try to reach one view," he said. The finance minister said the move would benefit the consumers who will only have to pay one "final tax" on the whole product. "As a result, the final tax paid on the whole product in the GST would almost be negligible," he said. The finance minister said the reduction in eventual expenditure coupled with incentivising people to enter the tax net may also help reduce the size of "shadow economy". A 12 per cent GST is levied on construction of a complex, building, civil structure or intended for sale to a buyer, wholly or partly. However, land and other immovable property have been exempted from GST. On demonetisation, Jaitley said it was a "fundamental reform" which was necessary to transform India into a more tax-compliant society. "If you see the long-term impact of it, demonetisation brought in more digitised transactions; it brought the issue to the centerstage. It expanded the individual tax base. It compressed the cash currency by three per cent which was operating in the market," Jaitley said. "Those objectives are for the long-term. No doubt there are short-term challenges, but (necessary) for transforming India from a non-compliant to a more compliant society," he said. The finance minister said India had historically been one of the least efficient tax system in the world with an extremely small tax base. "Frankly, over the last several decades, serious efforts, real efforts to expand this base had not been made. You had marginal efforts," he said, adding that systematic efforts to challenge the "shadow economy" were made only recently. "In the last few years, the bulk of the increase in tax payers has not been in terms of number of companies but individuals who are coming into the tax net," he said. Mr Jaitley said some people had "misunderstood" the objective of demonetisation "which wasn't to confiscate somebody's currency". "Obviously if somebody has currency and deposits in the bank, it does not become lawful holding. They still have to account for it. Therefore, the anonymity which was attached to a cash currency came to an end and that holding got identified," he said. "The government was able to trace out about 1.8 million people whose deposits are disproportionate to their normal incomes. And they are all to answerable to the law and pay their taxes," he said. Jaitley is on a week-long stay in the US, during which he will participate in annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.

Strong case to bring real estate under GST: Arun Jaitley at Harvard

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