FM should take growth responsibility away from monetary policy: Pronab Sen

'The robust tax collections give the finance minister a fair amount of headroom for an expansionary fiscal policy', he said

Ahead of the Union Budget 2022-23, which is to be presented on February 1, former chief statistician of India Pronab Sen says inflation could be a big worry in the coming days. In an interview, Sen tells Asit Ranjan Mishra that robust tax collections provide the government with the headroom to look at more demand side measures. Edited excerpts:

What are your thoughts on the first advance estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) for financial year 2021-22 (FY22) released recently?

What it points to is that though GDP is slightly above the FY20 level, consumption is seriously below that, which we need