Economic Survey: CEA’s big message – Deregulate, lower the cost of business

Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran

Economic Survey 2024-25’s big message for India to unleash its animal spirits is to lower the cost of business through deregulation.

“Lowering the cost of business through deregulation will make a significant contribution to accelerating economic growth and employment amidst unprecedented global challenges,” said the Economic Survey.

The Economic Survey emphasised the need to “get out of the way” and allowing businesses to focus on their core.

Making a case for ‘rolling back regulation significantly’ – “this means vowing to and acting to stop micromanaging economic activity and embracing risk-based regulations’

Elaborating on ‘deregulation’, the survey notes: “ This means changing the operating principle of regulations from guilty until proven innocent ‘ to ‘innocent until proven guilty’.

The survey says that “But, get out of the way’ and trust people’, ‘we must, for we have no other choice’.

India’s regulatory cholesterol has been an ongoing issue with big and small businesses alike.

About 60 per cent of the CEOs polled in the MC-Deloitte CEO survey asked for an online, single-window clearance, followed by an easier compliance process for trade and investment across borders. An analysis by Teamlease Services showed that there are close to 70,000 compliances at an aggregate level that businesses have to comply with. Two of every five compliances carry a jail term for violations.