Arun Jaitley sees personal assets decline by Rs 2.8 crore in FY16

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s personal assets have declined by Rs 2.8 crore in the fiscal year ended March 2016, to Rs 69.13 crore mainly on account of drop in balance in his bank accounts.

In his annual Declaration of Assets and Liabilities for 2015-16, Jaitley, who owns three residential properties in the national capital and one each in Haryana, Gujarat and Punjab, besides a 3,600 sq ft plot in Faridabad and 5,453 sq ft commercial property in Gurgaon, put value of his immovable properties at Rs 35.21 crore, unchanged from the previous fiscal.

However, his balance in three HDFC and one SBI Bank accounts declined to Rs 1 crore from Rs 3.52 crore at the end of March 31, 2015. Deposits in other companies, including Enpro Oils Ltd and DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd were unchanged at Rs 17 crore.

His cash in hand dropped to Rs 65.29 lakh from Rs 95.35 lakh in March 2015. This together with PPF and other investments totalled to Rs 11 crore, down from Rs 11.24 crore. He had showed an investment of Rs 21.70 lakh in his declaration for 2014-15 which was not there in the 2015-16 declaration.

Jaitley, who is the first Cabinet minister to declare assets for 2015-16, said quantity of gold and silver holdings with him was unchanged but the value of precious jewellery with him increased to Rs 1.86 crore at the end of March 2016, from Rs 1.76 crore in March 2015 mainly due to appreciation in gold price.

Taking into account the assets, including gold, silver, diamonds and bank and cash balance, held by his wife Sangeeta Jaitley, the total asset of the minister comes to Rs 69.13 crore at the end of March 2016. It was Rs 71.95 crore in March 2015.