With a stable Government at the Centre, it is possible to achieve growth rate higher than 8-9 per cent, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday.

“With the new environment in the country, where history has provided us with a kind of opportunity that it had provided 23 years ago ( to Congress), we can unleash the energy and perhaps go for a higher level of growth rate,” Jaitley said after releasing a book Exploding Aspirations-Unlocking India’s Future , written by economist Rajiv Kumar.

The Minister was referring to his party, the BJP, getting a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha after the general elections in May.“Even at the modest level of governance, we have grown at 8-9 per cent. With much better level of governance, I think we have capacity to break the deadline you are setting,” Jaitley said.

The Minister’s remark comes at a time when the economy is likely to end two successive years of below 5 per cent growth, with a projected growth of 5.8-5.9 per cent in the current fiscal. It may be noted that the economy grew over 8 per cent annually during 2004 and 2008.

While admitting that there were many challenges, he said there were a number of positives, too. “The support system within the Government is strong. The Parliamentary process is largely supportive. And some who oppose are really not able to sustain the argument.”

Jaitley said most economic decisions can be taken only with legislative action. Decisions, such as raising the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in insurance sector or labour reforms, would be possible only with the help of Parliament, he added.

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