Govt Taking Steps To Make India $5-Trillion Economy 'At An Early Date': Finance Ministry

Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in a written reply told the Upper House, "The government has been taking steps to make the country a $5 trillion economy at an early date."

Capital expenditure will be speeded up by PM Gatishakti for integrated planning of infrastructure and synchronised project implementation across all concerned central ministries, departments, and state governments, the minister said.

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The government on Tuesday informed the Rajya Sabha that they are taking steps to make India a $5-trillion economy earlier than the International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) forecast of 2026-27, the PTI reported. Earlier the IMF's World Economic Outlook had said the size of the Indian economy will increase from $3.2 trillion in 2021-22 to $3.5 trillion in 2022-23 and cross $5 trillion in 2026-27.

Pankaj Chaudhary, minister of state for finance, in a written reply told the Rajya Sabha that the government has been taking steps to make the country a $5 trillion economy at an early date.

Observing that the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020 and the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022 have impacted the world output, increased inflation in several countries, and raised uncertainty in the world economy, he said. "Lower uncertainty in the global economic outlook will help India become a $5 trillion-dollar economy earlier".

Chaudhary said that some of the important measures taken by the government in the past to boost economic growth include the making of the National infrastructure pipeline of projects, push to capital expenditure, implementation of the PLI scheme, finalisation of the National Monetisation Pipeline of public sector assets, and formulation of National Logistics policy.

According to the report, capital expenditure will be speeded up by PM Gatishakti for integrated planning of infrastructure and synchronised project implementation across all concerned central ministries, departments, and state governments, he added.

Chaudhary said, "Further sustains the growth momentum with an increase in capital investment outlay for the third year in a row by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore (3.3 per cent of GDP)".

The other initiatives to boost the economy include enhanced outlay for PM Awas Yojana, the launch of the Aspirational Blocks Programme covering 500 blocks for saturation of essential government services; an increase in agriculture credit target to Rs 20 lakh crore with a focus on animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries; and setting up of Agriculture Accelerator Fund to encourage agri-start-ups by young entrepreneurs in rural areas, among others.

The minister also said that the direct capital investment by the Centre is being complemented by the provision made for the creation of capital assets through grants-in-aid to states. The 'effective capital expenditure' of the government is budgeted at Rs 13.7 lakh crore (4.5 per cent of GDP) for 2023-24, he said, adding "the newly established Infrastructure Finance Secretariat will oversee the increase in private investment in infrastructure".