Modi government take steps to propel steady growth of economy:feels Bharat Chamber

Kolkata, 4 June (HS):Kolkata based Bharat Chamber of Commerce(BCC),one of the leading Chambers of the country, particularly in Eastern India,has requested the new Narendra Modi government to take some ‘forward looking policy initiatives’ in the coming months ‘to propel the Indian economy and  steer the desired growth of Agriculture, Manufacturing and allied sectors’ with top most priority.

Submitting an ‘Economic Agenda for the New Government’ to Prime minister Naredrna Modi on behalf of the Chamber, BCC President  Sitaram Sharma informed Hindusthan Samachar here today that though it was admirable that the share of Indian economy in the world had now increased to 3.2 per cent  from around 2.6 per cent in 2013-14 and the average growth of GDP had jumped from around 5.5 per cent to about 7.3 per cent in about five year to become the fastest among the major economies of the world,a thorough review had exposed that in spite of sincere efforts,some sectors could not bring the desired results in the first term of the NDA government.

It was emphasized in the BCC agenda that fiscal stimulus for growth of consumption and empowerment of the middle class with higher purchasing power,have become the imperatives for rejuvenation of  ailing Agriculture and Manufacturing sectors,Sharma informed.

Expressing concern at the low investment regime of the country, the BCC Chief said  one of the top priorities of the government should be to revive private corporate investment which had been low for some years now.

The NDA 2.0 must also need to focus on the manufacturing factor particularly MSME which had since been the missing link, he said and urged the government to introduce moderate interest rates through RBI after looking deep into the Monetary policy and the RBI repo rates to provide some head space to the investors.

Also underscoring the need for proper monitoring of the Banking sector, Sharma said it was very unfortunate that a record number of 6800 economic fraud cases had been detected by RBI involving a staggering amount of Rs 71,500 crores during 2018-19 alone. Moreover corruption was reportedly on the rise as the standard operating procedures suggested by  the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) was not followed and perhaps political interference continued unabated,he said and suggested that there was also a great need to push the rural demand for consumption revival.

Also referring to the alleged failure of the previous government to generate more jobs for the country’s millions of educated youth as promised earlier, Sharma  taking a leaf out of his suggestions to the new Modi government, said the first task of the Prime minister should be to release the jobs data which was held back for unknown reasons so far, triggering  huge controversy nationwide.

Asked about the  present situation in West Bengal which is currently plagued with several incidents of post poll violence scaring the industries,Sharma speaking on behalf of all leading Chambers of Commerce here expressed serious concern at the present political situation in West Bengal and felt that  in all likely hood it would have an adverse effect over the overall economic growth of the state with very few industrialists feeling safe to invest for new industries here.

Stating that because of the present strained relations between the state and the Central government on almost every issue, the hope of getting major investment proposals from public sector giants was almost nil, the BCC Chief felt that unless both the government resolved their differences and gave priority to good governance,there was very little change of any further economic revival of the state.

No private industry wanted to invest in Bengal at the present juncture till the end of this political tug of war between the Central and the state governments on flimsy grounds, he said  and apprehended that  such a situation could cause an irreparable damage to the reputation and overall image of Bengal to outsiders and send the state ‘at least ten years behind’ from most of the other states  in terms of economic rejuvenation.