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Think 10% GDP Growth Rate India: CII President
04-Jun-2019
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Focus on growth, jobs, trade and sustainability
KHL News Bureau
hegdekiran17@gmail.com
Strong action to spur consumption, investments and net exports will take India’s GDP growth rate much higher says Vikram Kirloskar, President, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The Chairman and MD (Kirloskar Systems Ltd) and Vice Chairman (Toyota Kirloskar) was addressing first press conference since assuming office as the CII head. “This is the right time for India to think big and envision a GDP growth rate of 10 per cent to improve development outcomes. With a landslide electoral victory and the new Union Council of Ministers in place, we expect the Government to engage strongly with industry to ideate upon and implement impactful policy solutions for achieving double-digit growth,” Kirloskar stressed.
He added, “Given recent data releases, CII is according high attention to four key issues to energize growth, generate new jobs, deepen India’s overseas footprint and energy security. CII will focus on strengthening Indian industry’s role in providing policy solutions as well as targeted action initiatives under the theme of ‘Competitiveness of India Inc: India@75 – Forging Ahead’,” he added.
Kirloskar noted that with GDP growth moderating over the last quarter, emphasis needs to give to the four key drivers of the growth rate which include boosting consumption, investments, public expenditure on social and physical infrastructure and net exports. Consumption will be greatly encouraged if personal income tax burdens are reduced which would translate into more disposable income available with consumers (for spending).
“The Government greatly improved ease of doing business and must now focus on significantly slashing the cost of doing business. Mega connectivity and storage projects are required across the country to lower logistics costs which render Indian goods non-competitive,” he stated. The required policy actions include cutting interest rates, rationalizing taxes on equity capital, addressing delayed payments from the public sector and improving logistics,” he added.
CII has submitted policy inputs to the Government for the upcoming Budget which include measures such as cutting corporate income taxes to 25% for all companies and progressively lowering the rate further to 18% instead of 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 alternative transport as the next growth driver. CII estimates that $1 trillion is required for infrastructure over the next 5 years.
The CII President advocated a triple-pronged approach for job creation, relating to employment intensive sectors, job skills enhancement and labor reforms for more enterprise creation. He placed a strong emphasis on accelerating growth in job creating sectors such as construction, hospitality, logistics, healthcare and the financial sector. According to CII, construction and healthcare alone can create 20 million jobs in the next 5 years.”
