chandigarh union finance minister nirmala sitharaman on friday said the indian economy is on a sustained path of revival and cited rise in gst collections and direct taxes to support her assertionshe further said that the confidence in the indian stock market is growing as retail and small investors are keenly investing money in the share marketshe was addressing the media herei can see very clearly signs of revival and good signs of revival otherwise my revenue collection would not be where it is both the gst and direct taxation said sitharaman while replying to a question on whether the economy has come back on track and has picked up prepandemic speedshe said the halfyearly target has already been achieved in direct taxesand gsts collections on an average per month is somewhere in the range of rs 111 lakh crore and rs 112 lakh crore probably it can safely be said it will be somewhere in the range of rs 115 lakh crore per month she disclosedthese are not small indicators these are not some sporadic indicators they clearly show that the economy is on a sustained path of revival she saidto a question on the stock market she said the market has its own understanding of what it deals with the companiesthe finance minister said there is transparency in the listing process of companies and related regulationsshe said today retail and small investors are taking keen interest in the stock market and investing in it earlier retail investors were participating through mutual fundsnow they are going through mutual funds and also go directly and participate invest in stock market through demat accounts therefore today interest in the stock market is growing and more investment is taking place and more retail investments are taking place and all it is happening in a transparent manner she saidas a result confidence in the indian stock market is growing she statedto a question on demonetisation whether the step was able to check fake currency she replied definitely control over fake currency was broughtnotes of two denominations were removed from the system and black money and fake currency have definitely been stopped the minister stressedthat it had a bearing on terrorism terror funding she saidreplying to a question on whether petrol and diesel would be brought under the gst sitharaman said at the time of implementation of gst the central and state governments had included petrol and diesel in itthere is a provision in the gst law that petrol and diesel can be in gst she saidwhen the gst council decides that it is to be brought in at a certain rate and after determination of rate that would also be added there is no new amendment to be made in the gst law for petrol and diesel but the council has to decide when to bring in and at what rate she notedsitharaman further said that the government was committed to double the farmers incomeearlier in her introductory remarks sitharaman said under the