New Delhi: Attempts were made to hack the online system of a PSU bank recently but they were foiled by timely action, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday.

Jaitley said after the hacking attempts, all banks and the Reserve Bank of India have taken a number of security measures to check such designs. “Technology firewalls are created to check hacking. If the financial system is hacked, then there is a threat to the entire banking network," he said during Question Hour in Lok Sabha. Jaitley said RBI and the banks are aware and they are taking action.

Referring to start-up companies, the finance minister said since the launch of the start-up India initiative in January 2016, a detailed action plan was being implemented which laid down the road-map for creating an ecosystem conducive for the growth of startups in the country.

“An inter-ministerial committee has been constituted to monitor the implementation of this action plan," he said. On the package of tax concessions offered to start-ups, Jaitley said there is an exemption from payment of capital gains tax if one liquidates a capital asset in order to invest in a start-up. “That is also part of the package itself. That in itself is an incentive to a potential investor," he said.

With regard to those who invest in start-ups, the minister said since it is an innovation, it is a hit and trial. He said there are startups which will fail, startups which will have to exit and startups which will succeed and their valuations will go up phenomenally.

“Therefore, some kind of flexibility and elasticity has been given to them. They can choose a block of three years out of the five years in which they are entitled to an exemption from payment of taxes and that amount of flexibility is a part of the tax concession package given to the start-ups," he said.

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