Kolkata: Amidst global slowdown, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Sunday expressed confidence that 8-10 percent growth rate is achievable on the back on increased investment and right mix of policies.
"I do believe it is (8 percent and above growth) achievable... If we take right steps in right direction and hopefully we don't have too many adverse global trend. It could be reasonably achievable. In order to achieve it is extremely important that we open ourselves for investments," he said.
In his address at the Indian Chamber of Commerce event here, Jaitley said roadmap for phasing out of exemptions to corporate will be announced soon.
India has to accept that higher direct taxes are not in larger interest of the economy, he said.
"I have announced in Budget with effect from next year over next few years I will bring down the rate of corporate tax from 30 percent to 25 percent. I stand by that commitment. Simultaneously, even though the rate is 30 percent the effective rate is 22. The reason is there are as large number of exemptions,? he said.
So, slowly a number of these exemptions are going to be phased out, he said.
"Very, shortly I will be putting the first set of exemption to be phased out in public domain for discussion. And therefore returns will become simpler," he said.
On growth potential he said, even between 6-8 percent growth, the thinking India believes that this is not our potential. The entire battle in terms of policy battle is to evolve ourselves from this 6-8 percent growth to 8 percent growth upwards towards a double digit."
Elaborating on the way to 8-10 percent growth rate, Jaitley said, "with average and modest level of governance in the past, we have achieved a good growth rate. If we are to improve upon our standards of governance, both at executive and legislative decisions much quicker and far more economy friendly, realisation of that potential is not going to be difficult."
GST will also add to GDP, he said, adding, "if we are able to increase the pace of our manufacturing growth, our services are in vicinity of double digit growth, the rain Gods have been kinder this year and therefore I do expect when compared to last year a significant improvement in agriculture."
"It is all these initiatives and improvement in manufacturing sector, with additional infra expenditure, improvement in growth rates is not going to be very difficult," he said.
Stressing that that wrong policies of the previous government were responsible for the economic slowdown, Jaitley said, "there was a slowdown in past few years and the reason for the slowing down was because we tried alternative growth model and that alternative growth model was to concentrate on re-distribution of growth without an emphasis on increased productivity."
The re-distribution of growth without increasing productivity was not option available to India, he said, adding it looked attractive in terms of slogan but did not yield desired result.
As a result of this India went down to sub 5 percent growth, he added.
Referring to GST logjam, he expressed hope that the legislative stalemate would end soon on this.
"I do hope as the world's largest democracy we get out of this whole process of legislative stalemate between directly elected houses and indirectly elected houses. It is here that the maturity of Indian democracy is being tested," he said.
Emphasising that a large number of consuming states mostly ruled by regional parties would be the biggest beneficiary of GST, he said, "therefore, the numbers in this are with the government. I am quite certain that the resilience of Indian politics will prevail and will be able to seize the opportunities which are available to us."
Jaitley said that there is no space available for growth obstructionism politics.
"The Indian society has also to realise that there is enough space for politics, but growth obstructionism is not a permissible space for politics.
"I think political parties which claim to be natural options for governance will have to realise that that space is not available for them and therefore I do hope that a greater sense of responsibility in those areas do emerge as far as those political process is concerned," he said.
