Govt. will stick with reforms to push growth beyond 8%, Economic Affairs Secretary : Shaktikanta Das

NEW DELHI : The pace of economic reforms will continue and efforts will be made to get the #GST and bankruptcy legislations approved by Parliament expeditiously with a view to pushing growth to over 8 per cent, the government today said.

“If we have to cross 8 per cent growth next year… reforms are absolutely essential. GST, bankruptcy and insolvency laws are very important in accelerating growth to over 8 per cent,” Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said at the CII National Council meeting here.

The goods and services tax (GST) Bill is stuck in a political logjam in the Rajya Sabha. The bankruptcy and insolvency Bill is being vetted by a joint committee of Parliament.

The economic survey has projected growth to rise to 7-7.75 per cent next fiscal, from the 7.6 per cent this year.

“We expect that slowly investment climate will revive and expenditure on infrastructure and rural (India) will create sustained domestic demand,” Das said.

He said that as part of non-tax revenue mobilisation, the government will continue with the process of special dividend as PSUs cannot be allowed to sit on idle cash.

“We partly use this during the year… The government has a right to take that (idle cash) as special dividend and use them for funding bank recapitalisation, creating assets and investing in infrastructure,” Das added.

According to the Secretary, the strategic stake sale policy has been put in place and efforts would be made to raise Rs 20,500 crore from such sale.

Besides, the Budget has announced that CPSEs will be encouraged to monetise idle assets to fund their investments.

“CPSEs would be encouraged to divest their subsidiaries so that they are able to unlock funds for fresh investment,” Das added.

On banking sector reforms, he said the government has given clear assurance of supporting PSBs and if needed, more capital will be provided to banks.

“In a budget of Rs 19.8 lakh crore, it is not difficult to find Rs 6,000-7,000 crore extra (for PSB recapitalisation),” Das added.

He termed the anticipated revenue growth of 11.7 per cent in the next fiscal as “realistic”.

“The revenue projections do not include the amount that would come through disclosure under (black money) compliance window and also the dispute resolution mechanism,” he explained.

The Budget has proposed a 4-month window ending September for disclosure of assets by domestic black money holders.

Also, it has proposed a one-time dispute resolution mechanism for settling multi-billion dollar tax disputes arising from retrospective amendments to tax laws.