Implementing Labour, Tax Reforms Key Government Agenda: Finance Commission's Arvind Panagariya

The government is focused on implementing key structural reforms in the domain of taxes and labour laws, Arvind Panagariya, chairperson of Finance Commission said.

"The implementation of the four labour codes enacted by Parliament in 2019 and 2020 is a low hanging fruit. Once that is done, there are whole host of reforms in GST, personal taxation, privatisation, higher education. Its a long process," he told NDTV editor-in-chief Sanjay Pugalia in an exclusive interview on Friday.

Panagariya's comment comes weeks before the Union Budget 2025 is tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament.

Reform push on challenging subjects have been slow, as India still deals with the overhang of socialist economic planning and policy, said NK Singh, ex-chairperson of Finance Commission.

"We were under the shadow of socialism since independence. Inspite of repeated attempts, we have not been able to shed that overhang. Reform in means of production like capital and labour have eluded us," he said.