New CII Chief favours one-time amnesty plan to bring out black money

NEW DELHI: The government should introduce a one-time amnesty scheme to bring out black money and enhance transparency in pricing and allocation of natural resources to accelerate economic growth, the new president of industry body CII said.

B Muthuraman, who has taken over the reins of CII, said an amnesty scheme will allow people to make correct declaration of assets and the government should punish those who do not opt for it. "But it(amnesty scheme) should be introduced once and not over and over again," he said.

Muthuraman, also the vice-chairman of Tata Steel, said India's economic growth will moderate in the current fiscal ending March 2012 with GDP growth pegged at 8-8.5% range compared to estimates of 8.6% for 2010-11, due to rising inflation and interest rates. "In the current context, this is not a bad growth rate for the economy," the CII president said.

He said 8.5% growth can be achieved if agriculture sector performs well, increase in raw material costs slows down, and central bank moderates its monetary policy tightening.