Assocham releases charter of demands for political parties; pitches for 8-8.5 pc growth rate

Industry body Assocham Sunday released a charter of demands to make India a USD 5 trillion economy by 2025 and called on political parties to incorporate the same in their Lok Sabha poll manifestos.

Listing out the charter, Assocham in a statement said it wants political parties to pledge, among other steps, to enable growth rate of 8-8.5 per cent per annum.

Some of demands that Assocham wants political parties to incorporate in their 2019 election manifestoes include simplification of GST structure, time bound dilution of government stake in Public Sector Undertaking (PSUs), providing tax rebate of 1 per cent to companies that offer over 20 per cent jobs for women and cut in corporate income tax for MSME sector.

It further suggested expeditious roll-out of Ayushman Bharat and reducing education cost by minimising GST on outsourced education services from 18 per cent to 5 per cent.

To boost economic growth and investment, the industry body has suggested creation of development finance