In the first meeting of its kind since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation drive on November 8, he will be meeting economists and senior government officials at NITI Aayog on Tuesday.
"The theme for tomorrow's meeting is Economic Policy Reform, Road Ahead. The Prime Minister will make opening remarks. There are 15 invitees who will make their presentations before the Prime Minister," a senior government official said. The meeting is in preparation for the Union Budget 2017-18 that is expected to be released during the first week of February.
Various reports claim that it is expected that the government would lower taxes to increase public and private spending to increase economic growth, which the Reserve Bank of India has pegged at 7.1 percent from 7.6 percent. The growth was slashed due to the impact of demonetisation. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has also projected reduced economic growth at seven percent for this fiscal year.
The official said that Modi will also look into various initiatives of NITI Aayog to promote digital economy like Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi Dhan Vyapaar Yojana. The expenditure on the first phase of the schemes (up to April 14, 2017) is likely to be Rs 340 crore.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier said that a 7-7.5 percent growth rate is not enough to become a developed economy.
"Therefore spending more and now is the focus," said Jaitley, adding that infrastructure spending "certainly needs a booster. Therefore, the areas where we were lacking, whether in terms of encouraging investment by the private sector and so on, I think these are going to be the areas where the budget should concentrate on."
The Modi government is also expected to roll out the Goods and Services (GST) bill after the session, which would reduce taxes and improve trade. The GST bill has to be implemented before September 2017.
