To create jobs is the need of the hour: Vice President
Hyderabad: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today said the expanding middle class will be the key driver of India's economic growth, and the need of the hour is to take full advantage of our demography by creating jobs.
He also said that while India must improve its tax-to-GDP ratio and curb tax evasion, there should be no needless harassment of tax-payers.
"The expanding middle class will be the key driver of India's economic growth in the coming years. With the large population of India, about 65 per cent under 35 years, the need of the hour of is to take full advantage of this demographic number by creating adequate job opportunities for the young population," Naidu said.
He was speaking at the inaugural session on a seminar on `Contemporary issues and challenges in Finance, Marketing and Taxation', organised by the Keshav Memorial Institute of Commerce and Science here.
"Merely turning out lakhs of students with degrees is not enough," he said, adding that they must be taught "life skills".
While the first and second rounds of major economic reforms were initiated by the governments led by P V Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the third round of reforms by the present government is transforming the economy, he said.
Massive recapitalisation of public sector banks at Rs 2.11 lakh crore is expected to improve the credit growth and private sector investment, Naidu said, adding that introduction of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has strengthened creditors' rights.
One of the major objectives of both demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax was to increase tax compliance, he said.
The expansion of formal economy will lead to increased tax collection and higher revenues, which will be used to accelerate development by building essential infrastructure, he said.
"While tax evasion has to be dealt with sternly, it should be ensured that there is no unnecessary harassment of tax payers by overzealous officials," he said.
The GST has changed the face of the indirect tax regime as it brings one tax instead of multiplicity of taxes, Naidu said.
India needs to ramp up its tax-to-GDP ratio, currently at 16.6 per cent, to fund a modern, twenty-first century government which can offer basic public facilities and social security to its citizens, Naidu said.
Demonetisation, a special investigation team for black money and the notification of the Benami Transactions Act would bring a wider range of economic activities in the tax net, while the war on black money needs to continue unabated, the vice president said.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
