Lifting the economy out of its long slowdown and oil sector reforms will be top on the agenda of the recently constituted Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) that is holding its first meeting on Wednesday.
The body, which was reconstituted after being dismantled in 2014, is also expected to discuss issues related to direct tax reforms and suggest to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about taking it up as his next set of reforms after having done the mammoth indirect tax overhaul and bringing in the GST.
Additionally, the PMEAC headed by Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy is expected to suggest the Prime Minister on rationalisation of welfare programmes so that a better implementation is achieved without overlapping of programmes. The PMEAC has been set up at a time when the government is under attack for introducing some set of reforms which have apparently put a break on the economy and its growth is stuttering at 5.7% in the latest quarter for which the data is available.
