New Delhi: The NDA government is open to privatisation of certain loss-making public sector companies, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday.
"Certainly I would be interested to look at some PSUs (which) could do much better in private hands," Jaitley said during an interaction at the World Economic Forum in New Delhi, referring to public sector undertakings.
Jaitley also said the government will soon unveil reforms for other natural resources sectors along the lines of coal block auctions.
"We welcome large investment participation, even international participation in area of infrastructure. If initial experiment in foreign investment in railways succeeds will probably lead to further opening," Jaitley said.
Speaking on the issue of retrospective tax, he said "retro tax was a bad idea that damaged the economy".
Jaitley said the government had fallen off the economic radar last 2 to 3 years and it will take a lot of time to rectify the economy.
The government intends to open railways further to private investment, review tough land purchase rules and relax labour laws, finance minister said, but said the government needed to build support for some of the measures.
The minister also said India is not opposed to trdae facilitation under WTO. "India not opposed to trade facilitation under WTO; a permanent solution should be found in stock holding in agriculture, Jaitley said.
Talking about India-Pakistan relations, the minister said India is willing to normalise relationship with Pakistan, but there are red lines. "Environment for talks has to be set up entirely by Pakistan," Jaitley said during the interaction. "Daily tension at the border is not an environment for dialogue," he added.
