 "Economy to more than double to $5 tn in few years: FM")
The Indian economy will more than double to $5 trillion in a ‘matter of few years’ as the government steps on its reforms agenda to accelerate growth, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday.
The reforms will not just help India retain the fastest growing large economy tag but also help it move towards becoming ‘a more developed economy’, he said. “With India's GDP poised to grow at a much faster pace, for every few years we are going to add $1 trillion to our economy. We are currently $2 trillion economy.” he said.
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Speaking at the India Investment Promotion Seminar organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), he said it is easier to grow when the world is growing at a faster pace.
“But when the global environment is unsupportive and at times obstructive, where shrinkage of trade is taking place, that is the real test because they say when the going is good everybody is at best. When the going is challenging then to defy the odds, and counter the trends is a real challenge,” he said.
Stating that India has received the distinction of being the fastest growing economy is last two years when global growth was slow, he said trends have shown that consumer spending and urban demand have moved up and slowly rural demand also is struggling up.
“This in turn will have a spiral effect in coming years on India's private sector which also has been waiting for opportune moment to become a little more aggressive,” he said.
Earlier, delivering a lecture at the Osaka University here, he said for India to realise its full potential for the next few decades, it needs to pursue its programme for economic growth more vigorously.
Notwithstanding an unsupportive global environment, India clocked a GDP growth of 7.9 per cent in the January-March quarter and 7.6 per cent for the entire 2015-16 fiscal on account of the government's pro-growth policies, he said.
Jaitley further said: "India will maintain this paramount position of fastest growing economy in the world. And if we did that we can present ourself as a society which evolves from an emerging economy and moves towards a more developed economy.
“And we have a pipeline of reforms still left over the next few years to be implemented and notwithstanding global slowdown and two years of bad monsoon, we have reached a situation where we still have the highest growth rate in the world,” he said. On the outlook ahead, Jaitley said he wasn't sure if the world growth would be supportive, but monsoon rainfall in India this year promises to be better and that itself will push growth.
“Our reform process, I am confident, is going to continue. It had helped us in restoring the credibility of the economy and while restoring the credibility both domestic and international investors feel much more confident about investing in India. That has helped us," he said.
Jaitley, who arrived here on the second-leg of his six-day investor-wooing trip to Japan, said he has seen enthusiasm during his visit and various pension and sovereign funds as well as investors are "very seriously looking at India as a possible destination”. “We offer them much better returns and hopefully a combination of these factors are increasing domestic demand," he said.
Jaitley hints at GST rollout next year
Hinting at rollout of Goods and Service Tax Bill next year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said a constitution amendment bill on the new indirect tax regime will be brought to the Rajya Sabha in the next session and all supporting legislations required will be in place by the year end. The GST Bill has already been approved by the Lok Sabha.