India to become $3 trillion economy this year, requires investments of Rs 20 lakh crore a year: Sitharaman

The Indian economy will become a three trillion dollar economy in the current year and is on the path of achieving the Prime Minister's vision of a five trillion dollar economy by 2024-25, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday.

"It took over 55 years for the Indian economy to reach one trillion dollars. In the last five years, the government has added one trillion dollars to reach about 2.7 trillion dollars. India is now the sixth largest economy in the world, up from 11th position five years ago," she said while presenting the Union Budget 2019-20 in Parliament.

Between 2014-19, the government provided a rejuvenated Centre-state dynamic, cooperative federalism, GST Council, a strident commitment to fiscal discipline and set the ball rolling for a New India, planned and assisted by the NITI Aayog.

 

In the last five years, said Sitharaman, the government initiated many big reforms in indirect taxation, bankruptcy, real estate and those in the social sector improving common man's life. She said the last-mile delivery stood out and the unknown citizen in the nooks of our country stood out with evidence.

"The government has shown by its deeds that the principle of 'Reform, Perform, Transform' can succeed," she said.

Sitharaman said mega programmes and services which were initiated and delivered in the past five years will be further accelerated. The government plans to simplify procedures, incentivise performance, reduce red-tape and make the best use of technology to achieve the desired goals.

"Gone are the days of policy paralysis and license-quota-control regimes. India Inc is India's job-creators. They are the nation's wealth-creators," she said while emphasising the substantial role of India's private industry in growing the economy," she said.

Sitharaman emphasised on an investment-driven growth model to achieve the goal of five trillion dollar economy. She said the government recognises that investment-driven growth requires access to low cost capital. It is estimated that India requires investments averaging Rs 20 lakh crore every year.

The Finance Minister said railway infrastructure will need an investment of Rs 50 lakh crore between 2018-2030. She proposed to use public-private partnership to unleash faster development and completion of projects and to make available a blueprint this year for developing national highway grid, gas grids, water grids, i-ways and regional airports.

Strategic disinvestment of select central public sector enterprises will continue to remain a priority of the government along with consolidation of public sector units in the non-financial space. Sitharaman said the government is setting an enhanced target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore of disinvestment revenue for the financial year 2019-20.

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