‘Bitter medicine’ needed to bring economy back on track, says FM
Finance minister P Chidambaram has warned he plans to administer a “bitter medicine” to bring the economy back on growth trajectory. While the minister did not make explicit, the chief economic advisor in the finance ministry Raghuram Rajan indicated the government could withdraw some tax sops for industry.
“We are reaching the limit of (fiscal) stimulus and we must contemplate ways of generating sustainable growth again”, he said at the Delhi Economics Conclave on Friday.
Chidambaram made the comments in his reply to the debate on supplementary demand for grants in the Lok Sabha. The minister also said some of these measures will be taken in the next few weeks.
In the wake of the global meltdown in 2008-09 the government had reduced excise duties and service tax as well as given some relief for specific sectors like exporters and commercial vehicle manufacturers. Some of these had been rolled back, but the government had been unable to bring all of them back to the pre-crisis levels.
The finance minister’s comments were made a day after the Cabinet cleared a clutch of reform measures including setting up of a Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI). Earlier the proposal to bring in FDI in multi-brand retail has also got through Parliament despite stiff resistance from the Opposition.
Chidambaram said, “We have to take some bitter medicine. There is no other way ... this bitter medicine is good medicine. It will restore the health of the economy and next year we can look forward
