Rajiv Kumar, Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog
After the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic had hit the nation arduous, which led the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) scale back its gross home product (GDP) development projection by one per cent within the present monetary yr, Rajiv Kumar, Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog on Saturday mentioned he’s assured that each organisation will revise their development projections to 10-10.5 per cent as soon as they witness the expansion charge by October.
“Everyone will revise their growth projections once our economy will start recovering. The recovery will start from June itself and will get pace from July. I am confident that everyone will revise their growth projections to 10 per cent-10.5 per cent once they see the growth of economy after October month,” mentioned Rajiv Kumar in an unique interview to ANI.”
The RBI has minimize the GDP development forecast from 10.5 per cent to 9.5 per cent for the monetary yr 2021-22. Speaking to ANI, Rajiv Kumar mentioned, “RBI has cuts GDP growth forecast for the financial year 2021-22 to 9.5 per cent from 10.5 per cent due to impact of the second wave, which is going to impact our economy in the first quarter. The economy will recover below than expected in the first quarter. Our economy will grow at a pace of 10 per cent-10.5 per cent in the financial year 2021-22.”
Rajiv Kumar is hopeful that pandemic is not going to have a lot impression on fiscal deficit and disinvestment targets. “Covid-19 has forced the government to invest more, spend more on public infrastructure, but it will not have much impact as we have seen our GST collection has increased. In the budget also our revenue target were kept very conservative.
So I think we will not have to worry much about our fiscal deficit target. If we see the data of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which stated that fiscal deficit target globally is on an average of around 9.8 per cent. Our fiscal deficit is not more than others. I am confident that we will achieve our disinvestment target,” Kumar additional mentioned.
Speaking about the potential for a 3rd wave after a disastrous second wave created havoc within the nation, Kumar mentioned, “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.”
“We are fully prepared for the third wave. Our health infrastructure is much better than earlier. If by any chance a third wave strikes, it will not impact as much as I have seen. People are not careless now. They are taking full precautions and are getting vaccinated also. Thus, I believe that a third wave will not make much impact.”
Kumar mentioned he’s fairly hopeful that the federal government will vaccinate everybody above the age of 18 years. “We have already vaccinated more than 22 crore population. Our member Dr VK Paul has assured that by July up till December, our country will get 210 crore doses of vaccine,” he mentioned.
The NITI Aayog member additional mentioned the second wave has frightened individuals. “They are still in fear. As soon as people are vaccinated this fear will go away and people will start coming out for spending. I believe that we will see that agriculture, manufacturing and exports will do better once things are returned to normal,” Kumar mentioned.
Asked if the federal government is engaged on any stimulus package deal like final yr, Kumar responded, “Our Finance Minister has said that if required, government is ready to do whatever is required. Government is already doing whatever is required. Recently the government has extended Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) and included more sectors to provide them support. So the government is already working and is ready to do more if required.”
On the problem of the continually rising costs of gasoline and states interesting to the federal government to do one thing to offer aid to the frequent man, Kumar mentioned, “Such things are always said that the central government should do something about petrol-diesel price rise, but we need to balance also. The government has the responsibility to control inflation, I hope that those who have this responsibility will balance.”
