He said what is happening in the capital market is a reflection that investors are becoming more confident about the stability and strength of India's economy.
Talking about tax collections, Chidambaram said the revenues are “more or less as expected”.
In the direct taxes segment, government has collected about Rs 5,500 crore more than the revised estimate (Rs 6,41,835 crore) during 2013-14.
On indirect taxes, government has achieved the target for Customs, but in the Central Excise and Service Tax segments there has been a shortfall “resulting in a net shortfall of indirect tax of about Rs 17,000 crore”, he said.
Chidambaram further said the slowdown in the economy was caused by high government expenditure, fiscal deficit and CAD, and consequent inflation.
“So in the last 20 months my job has been to attack the problem. We have attacked the problem of fiscal deficit. We have attacked the problem of CAD. Both have been contained. Once these two problems are contained, going forward you will find that investment would pick up, both domestic and foreign investment will pick up,” the Finance Minister added.
He also said the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has speeded up implementation of large infrastructure projects.
Updated on: April 26, 2014 19:43 IST
