Live now
IST | Source: Moneycontrol.com
Presented by
Days hours minutes
Presented by :
Co-Presenting Sponsor :
Powered by :
Associate Sponsors :
Presented by
Presented by
Co-Presenting Sponsor
Powered by
Associate Sponsors
highlights
The Economic Survey said that average retail inflation had declined to a six-year low of 3.3 percent in FY18, and that the economy was moving towards a more stable price regime.
The Survey found that smaller registered companies were equally involved in selling to both consumers and businesses, whereas medium and large-sized companies were more involved in B2B operations than B2C.
Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian has said that manufacturing export grew at 11 percent and that temporary challenges are receding.
Economic Survey expects FY19 growth to be 7-7.5 percent vs 6.75 percent for FY18.
President Kovind lauds the government's fight against corruption, pointing out that registrations of over 350,000 suspicious companies have been canceled over the last one year.
President Kovind said that digital payments have prevented as much as Rs 57,000 crore from getting into the wrong hands. He also said that Aadhaar has helped in securing the rights of the poor by eliminating middlemen.
The Sensex and Nifty indices were up 0.9 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively, ahead of the Economic Survey getting tabled in Parliament.
Parliament’s Budget Session begins today with all eyes on the all-important Economic Survey to be presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, followed by the Budget on Thursday.
Apart from the Budget, several other crucial bills are on the agenda for this session, including the contentious triple talaq bill, which criminalises the practice instant divorce among Muslims.
Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian will present highlights of the Economic Survey at 1.30 pm today, after the document is tabled in Parliament.
The Economic Survey will be tabled after President Ram Nath Kovind's speech at 11 am to a joint session of Parliament.
Here are the top 10 highlights of the Economic Survey:
> Economic Survey expects FY19 growth to be 7-7.5 percent vs 6.75 percent for FY18.
> The Economic Survey has predicted gross value added for FY18 at 6.1 percent as against 6.6 percent for the previous financial year.
> Agriculture, education, and employment will be areas of focus in the medium term, according to the Economic Survey.
> Economic Survey says private investment is poised for a rebound.
> The Economic Survey has called the prevailing high oil prices are a matter of concern.
> The biggest source of upside potential is the exports sector, the survey says.
> NITI Aayog Vice Chairman says that he hopes the government sticks to its 3% fiscal deficit target for FY19 but that it was possible that the deficit could end up being higher than that.
> Economic Survey says that consumption demand is likely to be aided by low real estate.
> The biggest source of upside potential is the exports sector, the Economic Survey states.
> The Economic Survey says economy management is likely to be challenging in FY19.
Economic Survey 2018: Bankruptcy code improving health of banking amid subdued performance
The Economic Survey has said that the new Insolvency and Bankruptcy code (IBC) is helping improve the health of banking sector despite the fact that the banks, especially public sector banks (PSBs), has remained subdued in the current financial year.
The demonetisation of high value currency notes in November 2016 resulted in widening of taxpayers' base and rise in household savings, the Economic Survey said.
The pre-budget survey further said policy priorities over the short term focused on reviving investments by mobilizing savings and encouraging the conversion of gold into financial savings.
Economic Survey 2018: Real estate sector shows signs of improvement
Indian Real Estate sector has begun to show signs of improvement with the total FDI of USD 257 million in the first half of 2017, which is more than double the total FDI in 2016 full year, says the Economic Survey presented to both houses of Parliament during the Budget Session on Monday.
President Ram Nath Kovind today said Railways remained the main mode of transport in the country, which was why investment in the sector was continuously being enhanced.
In his maiden address to the joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament, Kovind said the country needed to modernise and develop the capacity of the national transporter.
There is 'feminisation' of agriculture sector because of growing migration of men from rural to urban areas, the Economic Survey said, while calling for gender-specific interventions to support them.
Women play a significant and crucial role in agricultural development and allied fields "is a fact long taken for granted," the Survey observed.
Economic Survey 2018: Child and maternal malnutrition biggest health challenges
The government gave "utmost priority" to social infrastructure like education, health and social protection to plan India's inclusive and sustainable growth, the Survey added
The pink-coloured Economic Survey document tabled by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament today recommended that India must confront the societal metapreference for a son, observing that the adverse sex ratio of females to males has led to 63 million "missing" women.
The colour of this year's survey cover was chosen as a symbol of support for the growing movement to end violence against women, which spans continents.
Speaking about pending commercial litigation in the judicial system, the Economic Survey has called for coordinated action between the government and the judiciary, saying it will help improve ease of doing business and boost economic activity.
The implementation of GST is slated to be beneficial for the domestic logistics sector as the industry, roughly worth USD 160 billion at the moment, will touch USD 215 billion in the next two years, the Economic Survey said.
A slew of measures adopted by the government helped steel exports grow by 53 percent to 7.6 million tonnes during April-December, the Economic Survey said.
Climate change could adversely affect farmers income by up to 20-25 percent in the medium term, the Economic Survey warned and suggested the need for "dramatic" improvement in irrigation, use of new technologies and better targeting of power and fertiliser subsidies.
The Economic Survey has said that the child and maternal malnutrition continues to be the most challenging risk factor for health loss in India.
The Survey has listed air pollution, dietary risks, high blood pressure and diabetes as some of the other key health risk factors India is facing.
It has also noted however that there has been significant improvement in the health status of individual in the country as life expectancy at birth has increased by approximately 10 years from 1990 to 2015.
Economic Survey 2018: GST led to more than 50% increase in number of unique indirect taxpayers
As on December 2017, there were 9.8 million unique Goods and Service Tax registrants, slightly more than the total indirect tax registrants under the old system (where many taxpayers were registered under several taxes)
Key highlights of the Economic Survey 2017-18
The Economic Survey, which sets the scene for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's fifth annual budget, forecasts that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by 7 percent to 7.5 percent in 2018-19.
An ecosystem for the new insolvency and bankruptcy process that took shape in 2017-18 is being used actively to resolve the bad loan problem in the banking sector, Economic Survey said.
"A major factor behind the effectiveness of the new Code has been the adjudication by the Judiciary. The Code prescribes strict time limits for various procedures under it," said the Economic Survey.
The Economic Survey said that average retail inflation had declined to a six-year low of 3.3 percent in FY18, and that the economy was moving towards a more stable price regime.
It was found that small firms wanted to come under the GST net because they wanted to buy from large corporations. Nearly 68 percent of all their purchases came from medium or large-sized registered companies, thereby giving them a chance to secure input tax credits on their purchases.
The Survey also found that contrary to popular belief before GST was introduced, more than half the transactions in companies that are below the threshold are from the B2C segment. "This suggests that there are, in fact, other motivations for participation, beyond simply being a supplier to larger companies," it said.
The Survey found that smaller registered companies were equally involved in selling to both consumers and businesses, whereas medium and large-sized companies were more involved in B2B operations than B2C.
"Unsurprisingly, the data show that the distribution of turnover is very skewed. The registered below-threshold firms account for 32 percent of total firms but less than 1 percent of total turnover, while the largest account for less than 1 percent of firms but 66 percent of turnover, and 54 percent of total tax liability," the Economic Survey said.
Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian has said that manufacturing export grew at 11 percent and that temporary challenges are receding.
Pointing out that India's growth had been accelerating in 2016, when other countries were decelerating, the Economic Survey said that this trend quickly changed to the exact opposite for a period of 4-6 quarters towards the end of 2016 and the first half of 2017. "The world economy embarked on a synchronous recovery, but India’s GDP growth—and indeed a number of other indicators such as industrial production, credit, and investment—decelerated," the Survey said.
"It is true that the share of Maharashtra’s and Gujarat’s tax base under the GST is lower than their share of manufacturing. But because these two states also have a significant presence in services, their tax base share remains in line with their share of GSDP," the Economic Survey said.
"One of the key elements to look out for is net exports. There has been a surge in imports, and if it continues it could drag the overall growth. We believe that government will go back to the fiscal consolidation so the target for next year will be close to 3.2 percent (of GDP). This was also the target for this year and even though we are unlikely to achieve it this time, it is a realistic target for 2018/19," Gaurav Dua, Research Head, Sharekhan, told Reuters.
In the run-up to the launch of GST, a lot of talk was focused on the overall size of the taxpayer base. The Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR) committee estimated the base to be Rs 68.8 lakh crore and the GST Council had estimated the base to be Rs 65.8 lakh crore. The survey found that the current base is between Rs 65 lakh crore and Rs 70 lakh crore, similar to the two estimates.
"Based on the average collections in the first few months, the implied weighted average collection rate (incidence) is about 15.6 percent. So, as estimated by the RNR committee, the single tax rate that would preserve revenue neutrality is between 15 to 16 percent," the Economic Survey said.
"Maharashtra, UP, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are the states with the greatest number of GST registrants. UP and West Bengal have seen large increases in the number of tax registrants compared to the old tax regime," the Economic Survey said.
The Survey found that despite there being a marked anxiety in the run-up to the introduction of GST about the tax base shifting largely to consuming states, it is still manufacturing states that account for the largest tax bases.
"One of the many benefits of the GST was the voluntary compliance it would elicit. A few numbers highlight this phenomenon. There are about 1.7 million registrants who were below the threshold limit (and hence not obliged to register) who nevertheless chose to do so," the Economic Survey said. It further found that of the total estimated 71 million non-agriculture enterprises in the country, around 13 percent are registered on the GST network.