How will Bihar polls impact govt's reforms agenda?

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made a strong pitch on the changing economic fortunes of the country since the NDA government rode to power 18 months ago.Speaking at the World Economic Forum organized 'National Strategy Day', the FM said that the corporate tax rate would be brought down to 25 percent by phasing out some of the exemptions and the first tranche of that would be announced in the Budget. Addressing a packed gathering, Jaitley said that the fear of retrospective taxation was all but gone, and exuded confidence that the much-awaited goods and services tax will finally see the light of the day. Despite the optimism, concerns linger on whether political realities will play a spoilsport to the government's reform agenda. With the Bihar election verdict expected on November 8, markets too are cautiously keeping a look out of the results. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, BJP member NK Singh and HCC chief Ajit Gulabchand discussed the politico-economic situation and shared their reading of whether they expect the Bihar polls to make or mar the government's reforms agenda.Below are the excerpts of NK Singh and Ajit Gulabchand's interview with CNBC-TV18's Ronojoy Banerjee.Q: There are mixed opinions about how the economy is doing. While IMF has called India "bright spot", on the ground however situation still looks somewhat tight, manufacturing fell to a 22-month low in October and even consumer durable sales including automobile volumes remained tepid. Even economists like Rajiv Kumar had raised concerns on the pace of recovery. How do you see it?Singh: I think that India's identification as one of the bright spots in the economy by all credible international agencies by multilateral institutions like the World Bank, the IMF or even by rating agencies of India being strong performer registering  a rate of growth of what could be close to about 7.8 percent or so this fiscal year - climbing up to higher growth rates underpinned by strong  macro fundamentals like very strong healthy reserves, inflation which is coming down, by current account deficit which is very manageable. by FDI flows which have been exceedingly healthy, every indication really is that the fiscal space now available to government is significantly higher than what it was earlier and that the government has adopted very imaginative steps in making the growth  process increasingly more inclusive. These things which you are mentioning  about some of the ground level realities, it is true that the government is now currently under way  to break many of these logjams. For instance I think that the Finance Minister hinted very strongly this morning that the logjam in stranded assets on the power sector, very significant change is being brought about where the state electricity boards which have been largely bankrupt and which are largely responsible for a lot of the frozen stranded assets in the power sector, they are being reenergised by very integrated package. Ground level realities are changing and changing fast as can be reflected in many  episodic examples like the improvement on the easy of doing business, like the World Economic Forums competitive report and so on. So, ground level realities are catching up with the significant improvements and the steps which the government has undertaken in the last 16-17 months.Q: Mr. Singh you mentioned the power sector, Mr. Gulabchand come in on that, because you are in the infrastructure and construction space and therefore you might be aware that the government will be tabling the much awaited loan recast plan for the power distribution companies tomorrow in fact in the cabinet. How closely have you been following this?Gulabchand: I do not know precisely what would be decided, I can only comment on it when it is announced that what exactly it means, but in terms of resolving the problems of the infrastructure sector the debt burden that it has faced due to non payment of dues or stoppages or cancellations of contracts is an important issue and that it is being addressed now is itself is a very good thing to happen. What exactly is the nature of this decision, when we come back tomorrow with it and have read it properly one can comment.