Industry seeks measures for stimulating growth

Concerned about the decline in the industrial growth, leading industry chambers on Tuesday asked the government to step up investment in infrastructure sector and hoped that the forthcoming Union Budget will contain adequate measures to enhance growth.

"In the backdrop of declining trend in industrial production revealed by the Survey, there was a need to stimulate investment for growth in the economy," Confederation of Indian Industry president Sanjiv Goenka said while seeking a reduction in corporate tax and reintroduction of investment allowance to encourage investment and growth in the corporate sector.

Pointing out at the agricultural growth of 5.7 per cent, Goenka said in the wake of slowdown in the manufacturing sector, agriculture would also play a vital role in bolstering overall economic growth.

Commenting on the roadmap outlined by the Economic Survey, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry president K K Nohria said the financial health of the states was a big worry and becoming a stumbling block in actualising public investments.

He said there was a need to evolve a mechanism for implementing infrastructure projects.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry president R S Lodha said, the "Economic survey underscores the clutch of reforms which are necessary to achieve the Tenth Plan objective of eight per cent growth rate".

The Survey has underlined the need for the government to resist any attempts to delay the process of liberalisation and deregulation while advocating for deepening of reforms, Lodha said and added that only such a determined move will remove remaining constraints in power, transport and other infrastructure sectors.

The silver lining in the economy this year had been the agricultural sector that had posted a growth of 5.7 per cent as against negative 0.2% last year, stated Goenka.

In the wake of a slowdown in the manufacturing sector, agriculture would also play a vital role in bolstering the overall growth of the economy, he added.

Goenka was of the opinion that the low level of capital formation was one of the major concerns in the agricultural sector and there was a need to arrest the declining trend in public investments to address this issue.

He felt that the key to reducing the government's fiscal deficit lay in enhancing growth in the manufacturing sector as higher growth rates would lead to greater buoyancy in the tax revenue.

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