NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey 2021-22 in Parliament on Monday.
This year the survey has been prepared by a team led by principal economic adviser Sanjeev Sanyal is a single volume with a separate set of statistical tables as against two volume formats seen in the previous years.
Beginning as a less than 50-page document in the 1950s, the Economic Survey has evolved over the years, running into hundreds of pages providing a detailed analysis of the economy and prescribing policy measures to deal with challenges.
The survey is tabled in Parliament one day before the presentation of Union Budget.
Complete coverage: Union Budget 2022-23
Review of economy
* The survey forecasts economy to grow 8-8.5 per cent for the fiscal year 2022-23.
* For current year, economy is expected to grow at 9.2 per cent
* Agriculture & allied sectors are expected to grow by 3.9 per cent
* India's economic growth next fiscal year will still be the fastest among major economies, principal economic adviser Sanjeev Sanyal said.
* "Overall, macro-economic stability indicators suggest that the Indian economy is well placed to take on the challenges of 2022-23. One of the reasons that the Indian economy is in a good position is its unique response strategy," the survey said.
* India's economic response to devastation caused by pandemic has been supply-side reforms, rather than demand management
* India's agile policy response differed from the waterfall strategy of introducing front-loaded stimulus packages, adopted by most other countries in 2020.
* Robust export growth and availability of fiscal space to ramp up capital spending to support growth next fiscal
Fiscal performance
* Strong revival in revenues and the agile fiscal policy approach adopted by the government have created headroom for additional fiscal support.
* Gross tax revenue during April-November 2021 has grown by 50 per cent year-on-year, while the GST mop up remained above Rs 1 lakh crore mark since July 2021.
* The revenue receipts of the central government during April-November 2021 have gone up by 67.2 per cent (YoY), as against an estimated growth of 9.6 per cent in the 2021-22 Budget Estimates.
* The tax collections have been buoyant for both direct and indirect taxes and the impact of Covid second wave on GST collections was much more muted as compared to the first wave.
* The corporate tax collections have been buoyant, registering a 90 per cent growth during April-November 2021 over the year-ago period.
Financial sector
* The economic shock of the pandemic has been weathered well by the commercial banking system so far, even if some lagged impact is still in pipeline.
* Total net profit of public sector banks (PSBs) increased from Rs 14,688 crore during the first half of 2020-21 to Rs 31,144 crore during the first half of 2021-22
* Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) ratio of SCBs decreased from 7.5 per cent in the first half of previous fiscal to 6.9 per cent at end-September 2021
External sector
* Even during difficult times of lockdown, current account moved into surplus in Q1 of 2020-21, the survey showed.
* Capital flows have been strong, we have a very healthy balance of payments surplus, resulting in accumulation of foreign exchange reserves of $634 billion, Sanyal said.
* With such forex reserves and plenty of "policy room" to deal with the situation, India can withstand normalisation of monetary policy by central banks of large economies like the US Federal Reserve, the Economic Survey said.
* India's transformation from being among the Fragile Five countries in the wake of the earlier episode to the 4th largest forex reserve holder during the current episode.
Inflation
* The report warned about risks from global inflation and pandemic-related disruptions.
* "India does need to be wary of imported inflation, especially from elevated global energy prices," said Sanjeev Sanyal.
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