CEA Arvind Subramanian’s 10 new facts about the economy

From the impact of GST rollout and extreme weather to lower tax collections by states and Indians’ yearning for a male child, chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian has identified ten new facts for the economy in the 2017-18 Economic Survey. ET takes a look at the new findings:

Large increase in registered taxpayers
50% rise in unique indirect taxpayers post GST, 1.8 million more individual income-tax fi lers since November’16

Formal non-agri workforce more than believed
Over 30% workforce when formality is defined in terms of social security, over 50% based on GST net

States’ growth linked with their intl and inter-state trade
States that export more globally & trade more with other states, tend to be richer

India’s firm export matrix more representative
Top 1% firms account for 38% exports in India compared with 72%, 68%, 67% and 55% of exports in Brazil, Germany, Mexico, and the US

Incentive package boosted exports of readymades
Relief from embedded state taxes in 2016 buoyed readymade garments’ exports by 16%

India’s strong son “meta” preference
Parents keep having children till they get the desired number of sons. Sex ratio skews in favour of males if it is the last child but in favour of females if it is not the last

Avoidable tax litigation which govt action could cut
Only 0.2% of cases accounted for 56% of the value at stake while 66% of pending cases (each less than Rs 10 lakh) account for only 1.8% of the value at stake

Raising investment is more important than raising savings
Growth slowdowns are preceded by investment slowdowns but not necessarily by savings slowdowns

Footprint of climate change is evident and extreme weather adversely impacts agricultural yields
Impact of extreme temperature increases and rainfall deficiencies is twice as large in unirrigated areas than irrigated ones

State’s own direct tax mopup lower than those in other nations
This share is low relative to the direct taxation powers they actually have