Economic slowdown cyclic in nature: Goyal
New Delhi, Oct. 15: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said that the recent economic slowdown is a cyclic structural adjustment, and it is the right time to invest in India before growth bounces back.
As India is no longer the fastest-growing major economy in the world, Goyal admitted that the economic growth has slowed down in past two quarters (January-March and April-June in 2019) to a six-year low.
“India, being an economy with huge opportunities, could do well without this kind of a slowdown... Our economy is like any other economy in the world... Challenges have grown (in recent times),” Goyal said during a panel discussion at India Energy Forum CERA week here.
He further said, “We had a pretty good run for almost four to five year before the last two quarters. It (the slowdown) is rightsizing of certain sectors or opportunities in different areas.”
“I see the slowdown, but I don't get unduly perturbed by it... It is an opportunity for all of us to reassess capacities, productivity In move to enhance investment in the country, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) under the Finance Ministry on Tuesday launched a revamped and streamlined scheme to strengthen Make-in-India initiative through manufacture and other operations.
The government said that the proposed scheme would encourage exports, create hubs for electronics assembly, repair and refurbishment operations, in-ward and outward and costs of production.” processing, facilitate global e-commerce hubs etc.
“The scheme aims to achieve its objective through manufacture and other operations under bond scheme, under Customs Act, 1962 Section
65 of the Customs Act,
1962 enables conduct of manufacture and other operations in a customs bonded warehouse,” government release said.
“The scheme will also enable efficient capacity utilization, as there is no limit on quantum of clearances that can be exported or cleared to the domestic market,” it added.
Asserting that this is the right time to invest in the country, Goyal urged the investors direct funds, before the economy picks up again. He was of the view that when times are good, people tend to lose the sixth sense and don’t care if... The productivity goes down little bit, leading to a slowdown or structural adjustment every few years.