Demonetisation improved India's economic landscape: Jayant Sinha

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Monday said the government's demonetisation decision has led to a dramatic improvement in India's economic landscape.

Sinha said this at the fifth annual conclave of the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA) here.

"It (demonetisation) has led to a dramatic improvement in our economic landscape," Sinha said.

"The amount of cash we have in circulation is lower than the amount of cash we had in circulation prior to demonetisation."

The minister pointed out that foreign investors have witnessed that the cash-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio has come down and that tax-to-GDP ratio has gone up.

According to Sinha, the government's structural reforms, like the Goods and Services Tax (GST), have excited foreign investors.

"You saw that the GST Council has largely approved the draft of the legislation. It is a very important structural reform," Sinha said.

"The investment that is pouring bullishness among foreign investors, bull run in our equity market and the fact that demonetisation is over and worked brilliantly, tell us that in the next 12-18 months, the economy is going to do extremely well."

Addressing the gathering, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said reforms in foreign direct investment (FDI) policy are "work-in-progress", in which the government has been actively engaged over the last two and a half years.

Referring to startups, Abhishek said India has tremendous scope for promoting entrepreneurship.

"We have a very young population, very innovative...so the government is creating the ecosystem for promoting this," he said.

--IANS

rv-bc/vgu/vt