India has the ability to grow at 8.5% a year: Chief economic advisor Subramanian - Hindustan Times
close_game
close_game

India has the ability to grow at 8.5% a year: Chief economic advisor Subramanian

Livemint, New Delhi | ByAnil Padmanabhan and Gireesh Chandra Prasad, New Delhi
Nov 21, 2017 03:48 PM IST

The chief economic advisor said the country needs to address twin problems of weak demand and leveraged corporate balance sheets.

India has the ability to realise its economic growth potential of 8.5% per year, chief economic advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian said in an interview, laying down two caveats for it to do so.

Chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian.(Pradeep Gaur/Mint File)
Chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian.(Pradeep Gaur/Mint File)

This is presaged on India overcoming challenges posed by weak demand and the twin balance sheet problem of highly leveraged corporate entities and bad-loan ridden banks, Subramanian said.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

“And here the recapitalisation of the public sector banks that the government has recently announced is a very critical step forward,” he said, a day after Moody’s Investors Service upgraded India’s sovereign rating for the first time in 14 years.

Earlier, Subramanian pointed out, the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had undertaken a rejig of the institutional framework for bankruptcy resolution.

The cleaning up of corporate balance sheets would revive investment demand and healthier banks would stoke a similar pick-up in credit offtake.

The CEA, however, cautioned that this has to be followed up with some hard-nosed reform initiatives in banking reform. “Here shrinking the fundamentally unviable banks, ensuring/creating risk assessment capability in the PSBs (public sector banks), and bringing in more majority private sector ownership will be terribly important reforms,” he said.

According to Subramanian, the roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) had initiated a very welcome recast of the federal polity of India and should serve as a template to address the overhang of development challenges. “I believe that the future of India lies in the virulent spread of cooperative and competitive federalism with the GST as the harbinger,” he said.

In this, he believes the lead can be played by the government think tank Niti Ayog, successor to the Planning Commission. “The Niti Aayog can be for all development issues what the GST Council has become to indirect taxes.”

Referring to the recent GST Council meeting in Guwahati, Subramanian said the big message was the easing of the compliance burden which had been beginning to disrupt the supply chains in the economy.

“A committee led by GSTN (GST Network) chairman Ajay Bhushan Pandey will review everything relating to forms and the return filing frequency to see how the system can be made simpler and easier for everyone. A lot of simplification is still possible.”

According to Subramanian, it was only a matter of time before there was convergence of rates into three slabs and commodities like land are brought under the purview of the GST.

Separately, Subramanian stressed the need for tax laws to emphasise greater voluntary compliance. “We need to think more about instruments of policy that rely on incentives and voluntary compliance, build on that rather than cracking down on businesses that adds to uncertainty and raises the cost of doing business. I think that is a larger issue and mindset where we need more calibrated and less blunt instruments of policy.”

Unlock a world of Benefits with HT! From insightful newsletters to real-time news alerts and a personalized news feed – it's all here, just a click away!- Login Now!
Stay informed on Business News along with Gold Rates Today, India News and other related updates on Hindustan Times Website and APPs
SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Share this article
SHARE
Story Saved
Live Score
OPEN APP
Saved Articles
Following
My Reads
Sign out
New Delhi 0C
Monday, March 18, 2024
Start 14 Days Free Trial Subscribe Now
Follow Us On