Note ban, GST hit job creation, says expert

sTribune News Service

Patiala, October 17

Demonetisation, the imposition of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and restrictions on the cattle trade have adversely impacted employment generation in the country. This was stated by Prof Ravi S Srivastva from the Centre for Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, while delivering the Professor Surjit Singh Memorial Lecture on the topic “Employment Growth in Recent Times”. He termed the decisions as self-inflicting wounds.  

 He stressed that sufficient amount of data was available about numerous aspects of employment in the country. “The employment data have been generated by a number of governmental departments on a regular basis. Even the data compiled from government sources shows a slump. Demonetisation, GST and restrictions on the cattle trade have disrupted the normal economic activity, resulting in the erosion of income, growth, demand and thereby employment generation,” he said.

“Employment generation is the biggest challenge for the Indian economy as the labour force will grow by nine million annually. Disparity in wages is another area of concern,” he added.

 He argued that India needed to promote labour-intensive industries to improve its share in the world market.