Criticising the Congress-led Opposition over stalling of important legislations, including the Goods and Services Tax bill, during the just-concluded Monsoon session, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that time has come to debate whether an indirectly elected house Rajya Sabha can hold reforms passed by the directly-elected Lok Sabha. <br/><br/>Mr Jaitley was speaking at the inaugural function of 2nd State Bank 'Banking and Economic Conclave' in Mumbai yesterday. Accusing the Congress of delaying reforms with its obstructionism in Parliament, he said, India is getting increasingly polarised between those who want to grow and those who want to obstruct. He said, strong public opinion needs to be created against the stalling process of reforms.<br/><br/>The Finance Minister also asserted that India must completely open up its economy to global investment, except for rare sectors. He said, in the last 15 months, India has opened up in many sectors as recipient of global investors, adding that the second part of change process is easing of process and it has to take place at all central, state and local body Governments as well as at regulators and judiciary levels. <br/><br/>Speaking on a range of macro-economic issues, Mr Jaitley said that the inflation was trending down and hoped that RBI would take note of this in terms of their view on interest rates. He also said that monsoon has been good, except for two patches in the country. He said, harvest was expected to be good.

Criticising the Congress-led Opposition over stalling of important legislations, including the Goods and Services Tax bill, during the just-concluded Monsoon session, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that time has come to debate whether an indirectly elected house Rajya Sabha can hold reforms passed by the directly-elected Lok Sabha. <br/><br/>Mr Jaitley was speaking at the inaugural function of 2nd State Bank 'Banking and Economic Conclave' in Mumbai yesterday. Accusing the Congress of delaying reforms with its obstructionism in Parliament, he said, India is getting increasingly polarised between those who want to grow and those who want to obstruct. He said, strong public opinion needs to be created against the stalling process of reforms.<br/><br/>The Finance Minister also asserted that India must completely open up its economy to global investment, except for rare sectors. He said, in the last 15 months, India has opened up in many sectors as recipient of global investors, adding that the second part of change process is easing of process and it has to take place at all central, state and local body Governments as well as at regulators and judiciary levels. <br/><br/>Speaking on a range of macro-economic issues, Mr Jaitley said that the inflation was trending down and hoped that RBI would take note of this in terms of their view on interest rates. He also said that monsoon has been good, except for two patches in the country. He said, harvest was expected to be good.