India's economic goals give cause for cheer
PRIME Minister Narendra Modi has promised to kickstart India's stalled economic growth. On Monday, his government revealed its roadmap through an address to a joint session of Parliament by President Pranab Mukherjee, who said the priorities for the government would be energy, infrastructure and the creation of manufacturing jobs.
Mr Mukherjee's clear articulation of goals should give businesses and investors cause for cheer, particularly after the previous government's waffling over policy decisions. He promised tax rationalisation and acknowledged that retrospective tax laws, ironically introduced by him when he was Finance Minister in the previous government, is not a step in the right direction. He also reiterated the government's commitment to implement a GST (goods and services tax) regime to replace India's arcane tax laws. GST has hit a roadblock on account of opposition from many state governments, particularly those ruled by Mr Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A government panel has noted that a countrywide GST regime could add 1-2 percentage points to India's GDP. Mr Mukherjee also reiterated the government's commitment to push growth to 8 per cent and above, a rate that the country needs in order to create enough jobs for the 20 million or so new entrants into…
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes
Columns
China’s better economic growth hides reasons to worry
In AI-copyright battle, an existential crisis emerges
Europe shows diversifying from China’s economy is hard to do
Strengthening interaction: Singapore’s role in EU-Asean ties
It’s time to lift the veil on incompetence
From field to fork: Net zero starts in our food chain