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New Delhi, Jun 4 (UNI) The Indian economy has been growing at an average annual growth rate of 7.5 per cent in the past five years and to acquire 10 per cent GDP growth by 2013-24, the country needs around 5.74 trillion dollars investment, the Confederation of Indian Industry said here on Monday.
Strong action to spur consumption, investments and net exports will take GDP growth rates much higher, CII president Vikram Kirloskar told reporters. He was addressing his first press conference after assuming office.
“This is the right time for India to think big and envision GDP growth rate of 10 per cent to greatly improve development outcomes. With a landslide electoral victory and new Council of Ministers in place, we expect the Government to engage strongly with industry to ideate and implement impactful policy solutions for double-digit growth,” he stressed.
The CII president said with recent data releases, CII is according high attention to four key issues of energizing growth, generating new jobs, deepening India’s overseas footprint, and energy security.
The Confederation is also focussing on strengthening Indian industry’s role in policy solutions as well as targeted action initiatives under the theme of Competitiveness of India Inc: India@75 – Forging Ahead.
He said consumption will be greatly encouraged by reducing the personal income tax burden, adding more disposable income for consumers.
“As the Government has greatly improved ease of doing business, it must now focus on significantly slashing the cost of doing business. Mega connectivity and storage projects are required across the country for lowering logistics costs which render Indian goods uncompetitive,” he stated.
The required policy actions include cutting interest rates, rationalising taxes on equity capital, addressing delayed payments from the public sector, and improving logistics.
CII has submitted policy inputs to the Government for the upcoming Budget which include measures such as cutting corporate income taxes to 25 per cent for all companies and progressively lowering the rate further to 18 per cent without exemptions. It has also called for removing Minimum Alternate Tax and cutting Dividend Distribution Tax in its pre-Budget submissions.
The CII President requested the Government to maintain high public outlay on infrastructure such as electricity, roads and highways, telecommunication and other transport as the next growth driver. CII estimates that 1 trillion dollars are required for infrastructure in the next five years.
As global trade dynamics are rapidly transforming and global value chains are shifting, India has the opportunity to capture a larger share of the world goods and services market.
Boosting net exports and enhancing overseas investments is an imperative for the nation at the current juncture. India should target merchandise exports of 400 billion dollars for 2019-20 from 331 billion dollars now, Mr Kirloskar added.
