New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS): Important decisions concerning the government were cleared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but there was a great deal of decentralisation enjoyed by the ministers, said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Saturday.

Answering queries from mediapersons here over centralisation of authority by Modi, Jaitley said that he had been asked questions on the issue over the past two days and the debate was not about over-centralisation.

"I look after different departments in the government and the extent of decentralisation we enjoy is very large. All the decisions we are taking in the defence ministry or what we are doing in the finance ministry are decisions taken in the ministry itself. Of course, important decisions are are cleared by the prime minister or the PMO," Jaitley said.

"But certainly if you have a very active prime minister along with the decentralised authority which has been given to us, then there will be an element of accountability," he added.