Country Can No Longer Wait for Reforms: Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitely and Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal briefed the press after the Cabinet approved ordinances on to implement coal and insurance sector reforms. These two reform bills could not be pushed through in Parliament due to political opposition.

• Jaitley: The Cabinet has also approved guidelines for coal block allocation
• Jaitley: The suggestions of Parliamentary Panel of Insurance has been entirely incorporated by the Cabinet
• Jaitley: New sub category on medical devices carved out under FDI in pharma
• Jaitley: Ordinances demonstrate the commitment of the government towards reforms
• Jaitley: Country can no longer wait for reforms
• Jaitley: Stalemate and obstruction cannot go on in perpetuity, there is a constitutional remedy
• Jaitley: The unfinished process of allocation of coal blocks will resume with the re-promulgation of the ordinance
• Piyush Goyal: Government confident of completing coal auction process by March 31

• Piyush Goyal: Process of auction to ensure maximum benefit to common man, to ensure that the power tariff does not increase due to auction

• Piyush Goyal: Reverse bidding process of bidding being adopted, system works to see how much benefit will be passed on to power consumers