Roll out GST, reduce subsidies, World Bank tells India

Ahead of the Modi-government's first budget, the World Bank on Friday suggested that India should roll out GST, reduce subsidies and broaden tax base to promote growth, projecting it to be lower at 5.5 per cent for 2014-15, from the earlier forecast of 5.7 per cent.

“Implementing the Goods and Services Tax (regime), targeting subsidies better and broadening the tax base will help create the fiscal space for supporting accelerated growth and poverty reduction,” said Onno Ruhl, World Bank’s Country Director-India.

He was speaking at a function here to release the World Bank's report on Global Economic Prospects (GEP) 2014.

Lead author of the report Andrew Burns too was present at the launch of the report in India. The report, which was released globally earlier, has scaled down economic growth projection for the current financial year to 5.5 per cent from 5.7 per cent estimated in April.

Ruhl said: “With a rising global demand, we expect that a rebound in domestic investments and a pick-up in manufacturing activities will help India move from two years of sub-5 per cent growth to over 6 per cent in the next year.”