Niti Aayog in its three-year draft action agenda Tuesday suggested a host of reforms in taxation, agriculture and energy sectors with the objective of accelerating growth and rnincreasing employment opportunities.
PTI
New Delhi
The draft agenda, released by Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya Tuesday, also underlined the need for recalibrating the role of the government by limiting its involvement in activities that do not serve a public purpose.
Among other things, the Aayog has also suggested the closure of loss-making CPSEs and strategic disinvestment in 20 state-owned companies.
The three-year agenda (2017-18 to 2019-20) called for steps to check tax evasion, expand tax base and simplify taxation system through reforms. It suggested the government could consider consolidating existing custom duty rates to a unified rate.
The other suggestions include creation of an institutional mechanism to promote competition through comprehensive review and reform of government regulations across all sectors, besides strengthening of the public procurement system.
Stressing the need to bring down land prices to make housing affordable through increased supply of urban land, it suggested the need of reform in the Rent Control Act along the lines of the Model Tenancy Act.
Other suggestions include, more flexible conversion rules from one use to another, release of land held by sick units, release of other urban land potentially available and more generous floor space index.
It also recommended setting up of dormitory housing for migrants.
The draft action agenda on the agriculture sector, which seeks to double the income of farmers by 2022, include reform of the Agriculture Produce Marketing to ensure
that farmers receive remunerative prices.
The Aayog’s three-year agenda also suggested raising productivity through enhanced irrigation, faster seed replacement and precision agriculture.
The farmers, it said, should be encouraged to shift to high-value commodities like horticulture, animal husbandry and fisheries.
With regard to the energy sector, the draft agenda pitched for adopting consumer friendly measures such as provision of electricity to all households by 2022, LPG connection to all BPL households, elimination of black carbon by 2022 and gas distribution programme.
