NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Aravind Panagariya has said that more actions are in store to curb corruption and the demonetisation is not the last step in this regard.
He said more actions would be taken against the existing black money and also in changing the roles and the policy regime in such a way that future accumulation of black money is also discouraged. “So, we need to do both,” Dr Panagariya told a TV channel here during a visit on Thursday.
He said the Prime Minister has to decide about all this in consultation with his advisors.
Dr Panagariya said discussions are on, and hopefully some action would be seen in the Annual Budget to be presented in Parliament on February 1 next.
He said the Union Finance Minister already has a commitment to streamline the corporate income tax, and hopefully some progress would be made.
“Some progress was made last year. let’s hope more progress in the coming year. So, simplification of taxes and reduction in the tax rates should discourage accumulation of black money,” he said.
To a question on the changing scenario in the wake of demonetisation, he said, “There will be some impact in the 2016-17 fiscal because of demonetisation. We have only the five months left.
“In the pre-demonetisation period, we did okay and the GDP growth was 7.2 per cent. Currently, we don’t have information to access, but I can tell you that of 13 analysts and observers, 11 said the impact will be less than one per cent while two predicted a larger impact,” he said.
“The people have been with the Prime Minister despite hardships, and they are also observing that he is doing it ultimately for the goof of the country,” claimed said Panagariya.