Arun Jaitley returns as Finance Minister and makes a statement

Union Minister Arun Jaitley has assumed charge of the Finance Ministry on February 15^th. Jaitley, who is 66 years old, had passed on temporary charge of the Finance and Corporate Affairs Ministry to Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on 23^rd of January last month to undergo medical treatment in the US. It was Goyal who presented the Interim Budget earlier this month before the general elections that are due during April-May this year. Jaitley left for the US on 13^th of January for a medical check up and returned to India on Feb 9^th

Even last year when Jaitley underwent a kidney transplant at AIIMS on May 14^th 2018, Piyush Goyal took charge of the Finance Ministry for a period of 100 days.

Jaitley’s first plan of action on return was to attend a Cabinet Committee meeting on Security at 9.15 am where the terror attack in Jammu & Kashmir’s Pulwama district was discussed that left 40 jawans of the CRPF dead. He made a statement condemning the cowardly attack and said that the nation salutes the martyred soldiers and stands behind them. He also went on to say that the terrorists would be given an unforgettable lesson for their heinous act. Jaitley also withdrew the “most favoured nation” status which was granted to Pakistan in 1996 treating it as a fellow World Trade Organisation (WTO) member and granting it favourable trading privileges. Now, as a result of this withdrawal, India can enhance custom duties on a variety of goods coming in from Pakistan thereby hampering its exports.

Keeping in tune with the latest attacks on the CRPF personnel in Jammu & Kashmir, the Yogi Adityanath led Uttar Pradesh Government has announced an ex-gratia payment i.e. payment done from a sense of moral obligation and not legal requirement, of 25 lakh ₹ each to the families of the 12 CRPF jawans of the state of UP killed in the attack, besides giving a job to one member of each soldier’s family and naming the link road in their native village after the martyr.