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Regular-article-logo Friday, 26 April 2024

Niti pens recipe for 8% growth

Niti Aayog has proposed raising the share of taxes to 22% of GDP and investment to 36% of GDP

Our Special Correspondent New Delhi Published 19.12.18, 07:56 PM
Finance minister Arun Jaitley flanked by NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar and CEO Amitabh Kant (right) in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley flanked by NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar and CEO Amitabh Kant (right) in New Delhi on Wednesday. (PTI)

The Niti Aayog on Wednesday released a strategy paper that seeks to push the growth rate to an average 8 per cent between 2018 and 2023, taking the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to $4 trillion by 2023.

The think tank, which replaced the Nehruvian-era Planning Commission that produced Five-Year Plan documents, has proposed raising the share of taxes to 22 per cent of GDP and investment to 36 per cent of GDP.

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The Niti document — Strategy for New India @ 75 — was prepared after consultations with over 800 stakeholders, including central, state and district-level officials.

However, it lacked the indepth input and reasoning provided by the plan documents.

“Historically we have squandered several opportunities. Fortunately, we are on the cusp of making history wherein the last few decades India has started making full utilisation of those opportunities and that seems to be the course to go ahead,” finance minister Arun Jaitley said while releasing the documents.

Critics, however, said the document remained sketchy and provided little insights into how the goals would be achieved.

Niti has proposed many suggestions on taxes such as rationalise corporate tax and personal income tax, ease the tax compliance burden and eliminate direct interface between taxpayers and officials using technology.

It said demonetisation and the new GST would help push the ratio of tax to GDP to 22 from 16.8.

The document made a detailed exposition across 41 crucial areas that recognises the progress already made, identifies binding constraints and suggests the way forward to achieve the clearly stated objectives.

Among other things, the paper speaks of enhancing technological innovation through incentives.

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