IGI Logo

After the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic had hit the country hard, which led the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reduce its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projection by 1 per cent in the current financial year (FY22), NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman -- Rajiv Kumar has said he is confident that every organisation will revise their growth projections to 10-10.5 per cent once they witness the growth rate by October. He said everyone will revise their growth projections once Indian economy will start recovering. The recovery will start from June itself and will get pace from July. He said ‘RBI has cuts GDP growth forecast for the financial year 2021-22 to 9.5 per cent from 10.5 per cent due to impact of the second wave, which is going to impact our economy in the first quarter. The economy will recover below than expected in the first quarter. Our economy will grow at a pace of 10 per cent-10.5 per cent in the financial year 2021-22.’

He is hopeful that pandemic will not have much impact on fiscal deficit and disinvestment targets. Further he mentioned ‘Covid-19 has forced the government to invest more, spend more on public infrastructure, but it will not have much impact as we have seen our GST collection has increased. In the budget also our revenue target were kept very conservative. So I think we will not have to worry much about our fiscal deficit target. If we see the data of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which stated that fiscal deficit target globally is on an average of around 9.8 per cent. Our fiscal deficit is not more than others. I am confident that we will achieve our disinvestment target.’

Talking about the possibility of a third wave after a disastrous second wave created havoc in the country, Kumar said hope for the best, prepare for the worst. He stated ‘We are fully prepared for the third wave. Our health infrastructure is much better than earlier. If by any chance a third wave strikes, it will not impact as much as I have seen. People are not careless now. They are taking full precautions and are getting vaccinated also. Thus, I believe that a third wave will not make much impact.’