The Hindu Business Line : Political parties differ on FICCI's 10% growth agenda

`POLITICS UNDER THE BANNER OF BUSINESS': (L to R) Ms Mamata Banerjee, Union Minister for Coal & Mines and Chief of Trinamool Congress, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, President of West Bengal branch of All India Congress Party, Mr Sitaram Yechury, CPI (M) - Polit Bureau Member, and Mr Satyabrata Mookherjee, Union State Minister for Commerce and Industry and BJP leader, at a programme on `FICCI's agenda for employment generation and poverty alleviation with 10% annual GDP growth in the next five years', in Kolkata on Friday. — Parth Sanyal

Kolkata , March 26

THE sustainability of FICCI's proposed economic agenda for the new Government in Delhi, which calls for 10 per cent annual GDP growth in the next five years for employment generation and poverty alleviation, came under a critical scanner here on Friday from both ends of the political spectrum.

While Mr Pranab Mukherjee, President, West Bengal branch of All India Congress Party, maintained that the economic model now pursued by the country does not permit a 10 per cent sustained GDP growth for garnering the required investible resources to create new jobs, Ms Mamata Banerjee, President of All India National Trinamool Congress, said it is possible to achieve this growth if "we rise above political compulsions and make serious efforts to curb the population growth".

She said there is need to involve the people at every stage of economic development for employment generation through the creation of an effective social security programme.

According to Mr S.B. Mookherjee, Member, Pragya Parishad, State BJP, while such growth is possible, what was of greater concern was the state of rural India today, especially the worrying rural employment/under-employment scenario. He based his growth optimism on the latent economic potential of the country, which is to be unleashed by the end of the current Plan period.

Mr Sitaram Yechury, Politburo Member of Communist Party of India (Marxist), opined that recovery of the huge tax arrears of nearly Rs 1.5 lakh crore, and by taxing the rural rich, enormous resources could be generated to build the much-needed infrastructure in the country.

Pointing out that building of infrastructure was the responsibility of the State, he said if the NPA levels of banks are corrected without any further delay, substantial funds could be organised for building fresh infrastructure, which will attract quality FDI into the country.

Describing black money as "a cancer of our society," Ms Banerjee said she strongly advocated State funding of elections, if political parties have to be dissuaded from using this ill-gotten wealth for fighting elections.

Opening the discussions, Mr Mukherjee said owing to the limited resources now available in a scenario of declining domestic savings rate, and given the background of gross domestic capital formation rate in the previous plan periods, it may not be possible to achieve a sustained 10 per cent GDP growth in the next five years. Any further tampering with interest rates would prove to be a further disincentive for savings, he cautioned.

He said in a growing labour market, employment elasticity has come down drastically, which clearly indicates that not mere growth, but the nature of growth where more jobs can be created is important. He called for massive investments in agriculture, and further fine-tuning of our health and education programmes.

Describing FICCI's objective as laudable, Mr Yechury said it is possible to achieve a 10 per cent GDP growth in the next five years, if "we learn to treat our population as an asset and not a liability".

"We need to utilise this positive as a basic resource to reach a higher trajectory of growth,'' he pointed out.

Dwelling on the current levels of unemployment, he said under the existing economic dispensation, the country is moving from a "jobless growth to job-loss growth".

Pointing out that India's tax-GDP ratio is the lowest in the world, he said it requires political will to tax the rural rich and also recover the mounting tax arrears.

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