SME Times News Bureau | 27 Dec, 2019
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday
expressed confidence that the Indian economy would rebound in the near future
saying that the current slowdown was cyclical.
Inaugurating the 102nd annual conference of the
Indian Economic Association, he said it was true that the Indian economy was
facing some challenges due to the decline in growth this fiscal.
However, he said the country had faced similar
slumps in the past in the wake of the East Asian financial crisis and global
slowdown but bounced back with a higher growth rate every time.
Referring to the reforms initiated by the
government including the introduction of the revolutionary GST to usher ‘One
Nation, One Tax, One Market’, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and the steps taken
to curb black money, Naidu asserted that they were aimed at making the economy
more robust and more resilient.
Pointing out that 66 lakh new taxpayers have been
registered under the GST regime since its launch, the Vice President said that
it indicated the rising trend of formalization of the economy.
The Government has also taken measures to tackle
the problem of NPAs and improve the health of the banking sector, he added.
Observing that agriculture was the mainstay of
Indian economy, the Vice President cautioned that various waivers and subsidies
would be unsustainable in the longer run. Stressing the need to diversify the
rural economy, he said “rural non-farm activities are equally crucial for the
growth of the rural economy”.
Stating that it was our national resolve to
double the farmers’ income by 2022, Naidu called for making rural economy
sustainable and remunerative.
The Vice President also stressed the need for
agricultural products to have access to larger markets, strengthening rural
infrastructure, storage, and supply chains, apart from promoting village level
in-situ food processing industry.
Referring to fiscal federalism as one of the
themes of the conference, Shri Naidu said while most of the States have
retained their fiscal deficit around permissible 3%, it has come at the cost of
low capital expenditure.
“There has been a rise in committed liabilities
towards payment of interest and pensions, thereby leaving only a small part of
their budget for capital expenditure on infrastructure development, he added.
The 102nd annual conference of the Indian
Economic Association is being organised in Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University,
Raipur.