CII urges govt to contemplate reducing personal income tax rates to spur economic activities
With an aim to spur economic activities, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president Sanjiv Bajaj has asked the Central government to contemplate reducing the personal income tax rates. He also said the country's underlying growth drivers are strong and the economy would grow in the range of 7.4 per cent to 8.2 per cent in the next fiscal. He noted that ‘putting more money in the pockets of the consumers is of vital importance to revive consumption demand in the economy. The government should contemplate a reduction in the rates of personal income tax in its next push for reform as this would increase disposable incomes and revive the demand cycle.’
Bajaj said ‘the Central and state capex are rising and tax buoyancy would support growth in FY23. Hence, on balance, CII has retained India's GDP forecast in a range of 7.4 to 8.2 per cent in FY23’. He also said the CII believes that there is a lot that industry and CII could do themselves in taking India to a $40 trillion goal post by 2047. He also maintained that India needs to boost its forex reserves to revive the economy especially in view of the capital outflows by foreign institutional investors, prompted by an uncertain global economic environment.
He opined ‘the government should work towards inclusion of some of the large market cap companies into the global equity indices like MSCI and FTSE indices, expedite India's entry into J P Morgan's Global Emerging-Market Bond Index and Barclays Global Bond Index, and consider bringing out a special issue of India Millennial Bonds like was done in 2008’. He also predicted that by 2027, some initiatives will make India a $5 trillion economy. Bajaj underscored the importance of expanding the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLIS) and bringing more sectors within its ambit, especially those which are labour intensive and also in sectors where imports are high.