New Delhi: The Confederation of Indian Industry expects India's GDP to grow at 8% in FY25 on the back of boost in agriculture and services sectors and increase in public spending, among others.
"The strong public capital expenditure momentum is likely to support both physical and digital infrastructure", CII President Sanjiv Puri said.
According to the industry body, the agriculture sector is likely to grow at 3.7% in the current fiscal, compared with 1.4% last year, whereas the services sector may see a growth of 9% against 7.9% a year back.
The industry sector is, however, seen growing at 8.4% compared to 9.3% mainly because of a higher base.
"We are more optimistic than all the reports and estimates that have come out from the agencies...First of all, we recognize that we have come to [India has] a very strong foundation because of a lot of policy intervention on ease of doing business and so on and so forth..," Puri said. There are many factors like global trade, which is expected to do better this fiscal, he said. Puri said ..
While weather remains a risk, there is a forecast of above normal rains in the current year which may lead to better agriculture production, Puri added.
Domestic demand remains steadfast as seen in indicators such as passenger vehicles sales, airline and rail traffic, as per the industry body.
Public investment in physical infrastructure is estimated at 5.25 lakh crore compared with 5.06 lakh crore, CII said quoting the Union Budget.
The industry body has suggested for the government to increase capital expenditure by 25% in FY25 over the revised estimate of FY24 against 16.8% increase in the interim Union
Budget in February. It has also recommended a roadmap be prepared to increase public expenditure on education to 6% of GDP and on healthcare to 3% of GDP.
Recommendations on the financial sector reforms include implementing the announced privatization of public sector banks, diversification of funding sources for non-banking financial companies.
Rationalization of tax deducted at source provisions by reducing the number of rates and having a small negative list and capital gains tax by bringing about consistency in tax rates and holding period for different types of instruments, CII said in its suggestions.
Source Name : Economic Times