-Livemint.com * The Centre has no money for a stimulus package. Only the states can find a way to get India out of the slowdown * States, taken collectively, are the only hope. Despite loan waivers, they are in a better position to boost public spending. But that would require coordinated work between the Centre?and the states NEW DELHI: On 1 February, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present an important Union budget. The...
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Can a cut in tax rates pull the economy out of the woods?
-The Indian Express A cut in income tax will naturally mean a loss of revenue for the government, which will impact the fiscal deficit. The quantum of the revenue loss will depend on how deep the tax cut is. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the government is considering cutting tax rates to revive growth. “Tax rate cut is one among the many things we are thinking to boost growth,” Sitharaman...
More »The minimum wage solution -Rajendran Narayanan & Sakina Dhorajiwala
-The Hindu While indexation of the NREGA wages is critical, lifting them to the minimum wage would help workers and the economy The government made two recent announcements at two ends of the spectrum to mitigate the economic crisis. One concerns a new indexation of NREGA wages meant to increase rural incomes. The second is a reduction in corporate tax rate. Prices of commodities increase each year, so it’s important to accurately estimate...
More »Lowering corporate tax rate is good but not enough -Renu Kohli
-The Telegraph While the corporate tax cuts are a long-term positive, this does not dismiss the case for near-term consumption support The government relented on fiscal discipline to steeply reduce corporate taxes on September 20; the lowest is now 17 per cent for new manufacturing units. The stock market soared, seeing earnings grow after successive downgrades for nearly nine years — about the same time as the investment shortfall that lower taxes...
More »What can be done to address the demand drought in our economy? -Suresh Seshadri
-The Indian Express Why tax sops are not enough? What can policy makers do? The story so far: A worryingly persistent slowdown dragged economic growth in India down to 5% in the fiscal first quarter, its weakest pace in more than six years. And while the recent weeks have seen the possible reasons for the slowdown, as well as the government’s policy measures to ostensibly help revive the economy being put under...
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