Raamdeo Agrawal On India's Ties With US And China: 'Why Should One Come At The Cost Of The Other?'
Raamdeo Agrawal told NDTV Profit, "There is enough scope to improve relations with the US in its own merit and anyway China is our neighbour."
The last week has seen quite the flurry of action on the global, domestic and economic front. Right from tri-lateral peace talk possibilities to the GST rates cuts that are set to come in by the festive season. Raamdeo Agrawal, chairman and co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, believes that while the Indian economy has been slowing, but recent reforms like the budget, monetary policy, and GST cuts have set it back on the right track.
Agrawal is optimistic about the upcoming GST rate rationalisation in the festive season, seeing them as a boost for sustained growth. In an interview with NDTV Profit, he also spoke about India's relationships with the US and China and that one does not have to come at the cost of the other.
GST: A Big One for the Economy
Agrawal views the GST reform as a way to create a simpler, more efficient tax system. He said he hopes that the government will do a clean a job by having only two tax rates. "By Indian standards, its looks pretty good. It all depends on how much ifs and buts they put in. Will they do that clean a job is the question as we have only two rates," he noted.
He is not concerned with lower tax collection in the short term, but rather with achieving higher tax collection on a sustained basis.
"So I am not meaning that there should be lower tax collection, but the higher tax collection on a sustained basis. So the economy responds to the lower cost structure, the consumer benefits. It gets much affordable to consume in India," he said. He notes that the success of these reforms will encourage the bureaucracy and the politicians to take bolder steps" in the future.
Navigating US-China Relations
On India's geo-political relations, Agrawal advocated for strengthening ties with both China and the US without one coming at the expense of the other. "Yes we are improving our relationship with China, we should better our relationship with America also. Why should one come at the cost of the other?" he said.
Acknowledging China as a neighbor, he emphasised that "peace at the boarder leads to a lot of focus on the economy. "There is enough scope to improve relations with the US in its own merit and anyway China is our neighbour. Peace at the boarder leads to a lot of focus on the economy than on the border," he added.
The US is the world's largest consumer market and saying we cannot do without them, Agrawal. He hopes that India and the US can navigate through current hump without any permanent damage.
