Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has defended India's stand not to sign a global trade deal in World Trade Organization (WTO) saying it can not compromise with the interest of small farmers in the country.

Addressing a function in New Delhi on Saturday, he said, though there was a big pressure on the issue but New Delhi has taken a firm stand as farmers' interest is top most priority for the government. Mr. Jaitley said, if the government would have followed the UPA policy in WTO it would have been against farmers' interest.

A WTO pact to ease trade collapsed few days back as New Delhi is pressing for an amendment to WTO norms regarding the stockpile of foodgrains, an issue critical to its food security programme. The current WTO norms limit the value of food subsidies at 10 per cent of the total value of food grain production.

Mr. Jaitely said it is government's policy to increase economic activities and boost manufacturing sector by reducing tax rate and it has taken many steps in this direction in the General Budget. He said the government is trying to revive government is trying through tax benefits to revive personal savings, which he alleged had collapsed in UPA regime due to price rise.

The Minister said that government intends to open the banks in every village in the country which will expedite the economic activity in the rural areas and provide an opportunity to the people to take loans to start their own business.

On Power generation, the Finance Minister said that government has decided to give tax exemption to the investors who want to invest in power sector.