Union Budget will be announced on Feb 1, Economic Survey to be out on Jan 31

The time table for the Union Budget has been advanced by one month and is being scheduled for February 01, 2017. Arvind Subramanian, the Chief Economic Adviser, said the Economic Survey will be out on Jan31.

“The time-table is fixed. It is going to be the day before the budget and since the budget is going to be on 1st of February, we have to table it on the last day of January. So, it has been advanced by exactly one month. It means that we have to compress our work schedule and we have started working on that and we are going to hopefully meet the deadline but we have some very exciting ideas to explore,” Subramanian told ET.

Speaking on the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Subramanian said the GST rate should be below 20%.

“The GST is really a game changing reform but I do not think one should ascribe anything to one reform measure. But GST is of such a magnitude that it seems to have impressed foreign investors. We had actually suggested a range between 17 and 19%. Taking into account the Indian situation, the margin should err on the side of lower rates rather than higher rates,” he told ET.

Meanwhile, Subramanian said Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) are one of the biggest challenges Indian economy has to face, adding the government has introduced a slew of measures to grapple with it.

“It is one of the major challenges for the economy in the short run because credit to industry is relatively weak and corporate balance sheets is also not very strong. So we have to work our way through this problem before we can see private investment and growth pick up further,” said Subramanian.
(image: Indiatimes)