Brexit a sad development, but not to affect India: CEA

Patna

"Brexit is a very sad development...it has consquences for both the United Kingdom and Europe," he said while delivering keynote lecture on 'Overview of Indian Economy' at an international conference being held as part of the ADRI Silver Jubilee Celebrations.

"We are able to deal with it as we've solid macroeconomics," he said.

Stating that Brexit is a significant development with serious political and economic consequences for both the UK and Europe, Subramanian said it was a landmark moment in the history since World War II.

The decision has reversed the experiment by the European countries for togetherness as a collective entity, he said, adding the elites would now be forced to recalibrate and adjust.

As a legitimate tool to reduce gap between the rich and poor, the State should build a legitimate mechanism under which there should be delivery of public goods for all, but the bounties for well offs must be reduced and they should be taxed regardless of source of income, Subramanian said.

Stating that the state is spending Rs 76,000 crore on the well offs by way of subsidy on kerosene (Rs 1,857 crore), railways (Rs 3,122 crore), electricity (Rs 26,370 crore), LPG (Rs 28,219 crore), gold (Rs 3,785 crore), aviation turbine fuel (Rs 762 crore), small savings (Rs 11,900 crore), he suggested such dole outs should be done away with.

He also emphasised on spreading JAM, (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) for financial inclusion of the poor people and said the government is moving in the right direction by spreading Jan Dhan and Aadhaar by creating three lakh and five lakh accounts respectively per day in 2015.

He said the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in LPG was a big success.