MUMBAI: The government has now set its eyes on cleaning up political funding in the country and will soon announce some measures to root out this problem, finance minister Arun Jaitley told businessmen and bankers on Wednesday.“We are looking at some major steps to be announced by which we want to cleanse the entire political funding in India,” Jaitley said via video link at the SBI Banking and Economics Conclave in Mumbai. “For the last 70 years, the world’s largest democracy has survived on funding which really brings no credit to the democracy. And I think it has been the prime minister’s insistence that this has to be one of the subjects that the government has to take up now as a top priority.” He was responding to a question from SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya on major reforms that can be expected after GST and demonetisation Spending on political activity has soared in recent years and even risen faster than per capita income, but bulk of political expenditure remains off the books. Jaitley’s Budget in February had contained some measures including caps on cash donations and an electoral bond that will be issued by certain banks for contributions to political parties.The cap on cash transaction is Rs 2,000 at present.Political parties can receive funds by cheque or digital mode from donors.Jaitley did not elaborate on the steps to fight corruption in political funding but had pointed out in the budget speech that the RBI Act will be amended to enable the issue of electoral bonds.Jaitley also said implementation of GST and follow-up action on the after-effects on demonetisation will be key to future growth over the next two years.“After demonetisation the manner in which India has taken difficult decisions and implemented them showed our resilience,” the finance minister said. “These two (demonetisation & GST) reforms have made reform process far more easier and I believe that the next one or two years will be the period of implementation and net impact would be the buoyancy in the tax collections.”The finance minister also noted that while India’s current GDP growth was reasonable, it had potential to sustain high levels of growth over the next decade.“Once India is able to sustain this high level of growth, it is our responsibility as government to concentrate on areas that will add to further growth,” he said. “I do see India concentrating in a big way in some areas of infrastructure. In some areas we have been doing well but we have to move faster in railways, concentrate on rural infrastructure, rural housing, sanitation in rural areas, irrigation in rural areas, these all have to be our emphasis over the next one decade.”