GDP to grow over 7.5% in 2017-18, says Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa

Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa has termed country's macro-economic fundamentals like fiscal deficit and inflation as very sound, saying that this fiscal, India’s GDP can grow by over 7.5%.

Lavasa is in the US to attend a global investors conference, and has said that while the global economy has slowed down in the last few years, India has managed to maintain a healthy rate of growth.

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"As far as (fiscal year) 2017-18 is concerned, I'm looking certainly at the economy growing at 7.5 per cent plus," Lavasa said.

"Though it (growth rate) might not be as much as people would have expected but still among the developing economies and other economies, India continues to grow at a healthy rate. On all accounts, the Indian economy is in a fairly sound position. We feel that the kind of potential India has for growth is unmatched by other countries," he said.

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He also said that in the future, owing to changing lifestyles and growing urbanisation, "India will not only continue to grow at a healthy rate but it will continue to be a very attractive destination for many investors," he said.

He, however, said that economy has certain sectors that largely depended on cash and after the demonetisation drive, some informal sectors did face a slump.

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"But if you look at the tax collection of the government, taxes have shown not a minor but substantial increase. Excise duty has grown by over 31 per cent in 2016-17 over the previous year. The buoyancy in tax revenue does not certainly indicate that there was a major adverse impact (of demonetisation)," he said.

"We feel that there is lot of formalisation of many economic activities which this process of demonetisation has helped in triggering - digitalisation of the economy and greater use of digital transactions. All this is a development which will stand the economy in good stead," he said.

(Image source Business Standard)