7 per cent GDP growth in three years: Mayaram
The State govts should ease the business environment, to achieve the goal
 "7 per cent GDP growth in three years: Mayaram")
He said interest rates are expected to come down and the government is looking at allowing FDI in real estate, especially in the affordable housing space.
Speaking at the anniversary programme of Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), Mayaram said, “Our potential growth rate is eight per cent. But that will take a little while to reach, because there are a lot of structural reforms that we must undertake to reach there. But I am quite confident in the next three years, we will be seven per cent-plus and which is also a very good rate.”
According to him, the Centre does not attract any investment in the real economy and it is the states which have to do that. “Much of the changes must come from the states. Among the recommendations is the possibility of moving towards self-certification or third-party certification,” he said.
“I would urge the Tamil Nadu government to look at whether we can have the process of self-certification or third-party certification in as many laws as possible – related to Provident Fund Act, Labour Act, boilers inspectors among others. At least 60-70 per cent of the problems found on the ground can be taken care if the self-certification or third-party certification is brought in as many areas as possible,” he added.
Given the rate of growth the country is expecting, it would not be practical for the officials to go have a physical verification of each of the certificates and there should only be random verifications. However, for the violation of certification norms, the punishment should also be higher, which should discourage anybody from indulging in fraudulent activities, he added.
He said that he is very confident that the government would be able to bring down the Consumer Price Index (CPI) close to six per cent. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) was rating between 12-13 per cent, which has now come down. The core inflation is come down the WPI is in the range of 3-4 per cent and the CPI was seen creeping down to below the target the Reserve Bank of India has set for this year, which 8 per cent.
"We are now at 7.4-7.5 per cent and going forward I am very confident that this year we would be able to come very close to 6 per cent as far as CPI is concerned, which means it will have an impact on our savings," he said.
As inflation comes down, the savings rate will go up and as the savings rate will go up, there will be greater liquidity available for lending and the questions of lending to small scale industries to others that finance would be available.
"We are moving to a regime where interest rates must come down. Going forward they must come down, I don't know at what point the RBI would be comfortable enough, but I am confident that the measures that we have taken indicate that sooner than later the interest rate should start coming down," he said. He added that the value of Rupee would continue to be stable around Rs 60-62 for the near future.
The government is also looking at creating infrastructure and renewal of infrastructure in existing cities. It is also opening up newer areas for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and after sectors such as Defence, it is looking at opening the real estate sector to open up FDI investments, especially in the area of affordable housing for all. The government would come out with guidelines for the Rs 10,000 crore start up fund by the end of this month or by the middle of next month, he added.