'Abolish income tax'

BJP leader and economist Subramanian Swamy on Sunday said that the income tax be abolished as an immediate solution, in a bid to improve the ‘dismal’ state of India’s economy.

Interacting with delegates at an event of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry themed, ‘Challenges in Rebooting the Indian Economy here, Swamy said, “In order to reboot the economy, somewhere we will have to do a bit of bloodletting... In my opinion, the most immediate thing, right now, is to abolish income tax, following which, a lot of people will heave a sigh a relief.”

Coal block auction

Adding that though one might feel that the Rs 2-lakh crore revenue generated out of I-T might be affected by the move, Swamy went on to quip, “One auction of 2G spectrum will cover for it, besides the coal block auction generating Rs 11 lakh crore, and the black money from the country saved in Swiss banks to the tune of Rs 120 lakh crore, which is twice the I-T revenue itself.” The statement is in reference to the number of scams committed during the previous government.

Swamy suggested a multipronged approach in order to reboot the economy, with special emphasis on agriculture. “Agriculture represents our best potential, since we have suitable climate to farm 12 months of the year. We can grow three crops a year. We must modernise and ‘globalise’ agriculture, and turn it into our exporting sector,” he said, adding that the linking of India’s rivers, and creating a water grid will help in equitably distributing water resources.

The country’s economy grew at 8.4 per cent in 2003-04, which slumped to 4.8 per cent in 2013-14. Swamy said, “Our youth must be given the best education and manufacturing must be boosted, since it provides employment to many of India’s semi-skilled workforce... I am very optimistic about the country growing at 10 per cent.”