Good Performance of Industry Vital for Overall Growth of Economy - FM
THE Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee held meeting with the stakeholders of different Industry Groups to get their inputs for General Budget 2011-12, yesterday. In his opening remarks, the Finance Minister said that a good performance of industry is vital for the overall growth of the economy and for the growth of government revenues to fund critical public expenditure on social and infrastructure development in the economy. He said that Indian industry, particularly the manufacturing sector, has been an important growth driver in recent years. The Finance Minister said that we have seen the economy clock over 9 per cent GDP growth in the years prior to the global economic slowdown, which impacted us in years 2008 and 2009. [Economists have predicted that the growth cannot be sustained and in the year ahead we may not get the 9 per cent growth, while the FM hopes to surpass it.]
The Finance Minister said that he would also like to hear specific short and medium term suggestions from the stakeholders of industry sector for sustaining a double digit growth in industry and for stepping up the growth of manufactured exports. He asked for their specific observation about the corporate tax collections in the current financial year which are not keeping up with the anticipated trend.