ESI: Ten new facts on the Indian Economy

The Economic Survey of India (ESI) 2017-18 has revealed the ten new facts on the India Economy:

1. There has been a large increase in registered indirect and direct taxpayers
   • A 50 percent increase in unique indirect taxpayers under the GST
   • There has been an addition (over and above trend growth) of about 1.8 million in individual income tax filers since November 2016
2. Formal non-agricultural payroll is much greater than believed
3. States that export more internationally, and trade more with other states, tend to be richer. But the correlation is stronger between prosperity and international trade.
4. India’s firm export structure is substantially more egalitarian than in other large countries
   • Top 1 percent of Indian firms account for 38 percent of exports which is very less as compared to other countries which has substantially larger share (72, 68, 67, and 55 percent of exports in Brazil, Germany, Mexico, and USA respectively)
5. The clothing incentive package boosted exports of readymade garments
6. Indian society exhibits strong son “Meta” Preference
   • Parents continue to have children until they get the desired number of sons.
   • This kind of fertility-stopping rule leads to skewed sex ratios but in different directions: skewed in favor of males if it is the last child, but in favor of females if it is not the last
7. There is substantial avoidable litigation in the tax arena which government action could reduce
   • The tax department’s petition rate is high, even though its success rate in litigation is low and declining (well below 30 percent).
   • Only 0.2 percent of cases accounted for 56 percent of the value at stake; whereas
   • About 66 percent of pending cases (each less than Rs. 10 lakhs) accounted for only 1.8 percent of the value at stake
8. To re-ignite growth, raising investment is more important than raising saving
9. Own direct tax collections by Indian states and local governments are significantly lower than those of their counterparts in other federal countries
10. The footprint of climate change is evident and extreme weather adversely impacts agricultural yields

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