Demonetization, GST led to expansion of tax base: VP

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu said that the twin reforms of demonetization and Goods and Services Tax (GST) have led to the improvement in India's fiscal prudence and has expanded the tax base.

"The tax base has expanded, bringing over 8.27 crore people into the tax net, and the tax system is being corrected so that there is no scope for evasion," the Vice President said, addressing the inaugural session of the three-day 24th edition of Partnership summit here on Saturday.

"The economy is poised to achieve higher growth in coming years," he said after inaugurating the summit attended by 2,500 delegates from over 50 countries aimed at attracting investments into Andhra Pradesh (AP).

"Demonetization has brought the money, hitherto lying idle, into the banking system and resulted in bringing down the interest rates," Naidu said.

However, the long-term advantages will definitely outweigh the short-term hiccups which caused a bit of economic slowdown, the Vice President said.

Quoting a report from Dominic Barton, a global managing partner of McKinsey, he said that India was poised to become a $10 trillion economy by 2030, which is four times bigger than its current size.

"To achieve this, we have to adopt several unorthodox measures. For instance, with around 120 million people set to join the Indian workforce, skilling them in a short span of time is essential," Naidu said.

"This is the third investors' meet being organized by the AP government here after the state's bifurcation. During the last three-and-half-years, as many as 946 MoUs were signed involving a commitment of Rs 13.54 lakh crore investments and 31 lakh jobs," AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said.

"With 59% conversion rate at Partnership Summits, AP ranks highest in the country in terms of grounding the projects," he said.

"Our goal is to become number one state in the country by 2029 in terms of per capita income and growth," the chief minister said.

As many as nine plenary sessions and eight sectoral sessions will provide platform for policy makers, industry leaders, thought leaders and academicians to interact during the event. The Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu is chairing the summit and guiding the deliberations.

The focus sectors of the Summit are Aerospace and defense, agro and food processing, automobile and auto components, electronic and IT, energy, tourism, petroleum and petrochemicals, textiles, renewable energy and medical equipment.