In order to trigger the country’s economic growth amidst an environment of weak consumer spending, pessimism regarding jobs & slowdown, Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman announced a number of measures on Friday. Some of these measures include removing tax on foreign funds, allowing concessions on vehicle purchases and speeding up infusion of Rs 700 billion rupees (US$ 9.8 billion) of capital in state-run banks.
It has been pointed out by leading economists that the policy which focuses on giving an impetus to foreign funds and lending, lacks any major fiscal support. “What India needs is structural reforms to take growth to above 7%,” opines Priyanka Kishore, head of India and Southeast Asia economics at Oxford Economics in Singapore. Customers seem extremely pessimistic at present over jobs, as growth slows to a five-year low. In the quarter ending June 2019, growth was pegged at 5.7%, lower than 5.8% in the quarter ending March 2019.
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