Niti Aayog CEO hints at more structural reforms in the offing

Asks investors to prefer brown-field projects instead of green-field one

62-Amitabh-Kant Amitabh Kant

There will be many more structural reforms by the government in the coming days to push economy to a high growth trajectory, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Thursday.

In the last five years, the economy has grown at about 7.5 per cent. The country's growth rate of 8.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2017-18 has fallen to 5 per cent in April-June, 2019-20, Kant said at a World Economic Forum event in New Delhi. "The RBI and the government have taken a series of measures to take India back to a high trajectory of growth. The RBI has dropped repo rate by about 110 basis points (in 2019 so far), but there are limitations to monetary policy and therefore, the government stepped in and took a series of measures," Kant said.

The government announced a series of economic boosters, including capitalisation of public sector banks, merging some of them, package for exports, and bringing down corporate tax rate, he said.

"I think many more structural reforms are in the offing. The government has pushed for public sector disinvestment. I can tell you we have pushed for asset monetisation in a very big way. Our belief is that instead of green-field projects, investors must come into brown-field projects," he said further.

Kant also said the government must be a facilitator, a catalyst and should keep itself out of business.