Stock Market Crash is Not Due to Union Budget

After Friday’s stock market crash of over 800 points, the Government said the Union Budget was not the reason for this though it caused “some anxiety”.

Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg told that it needed to be figured out as to what were the reasons for the biggest crash since November 2016.

"Yesterday there may have been some impact of Long Term Capital Gains (LTCG) Tax. It was expected. We need to figure out (reasons for Friday's crash)... Maybe portfolio reshuffling has started, maybe some anxiety is there," he said.

"Today there was no Budget announcement," he added, when asked if the sharp drop in stock prices was influenced by the Budget announcements especially the LTCG tax of 10 per cent on shares and upward revision of Fiscal Deficit target.

Viewing on possible downgrading by rating agencies of the Indian economy in the light of burgeoning fiscal deficit, he ruled out any such possibility.

Touching double-digit growth was not on the horizon, he said, despite pointing out to a clear turnaround by the economy.

"Double-digit growth in this environment of global low growth rates seem to be very, very far," he said.

Though he said global issues would be a hurdle in India reaching 10 per cent growth rate, India was well on its growth trajectory and should aspire for double-digit growth.

"The Indian economy has turned around and is well on its growth trajectory. But we should aim for it (double-digit growth)," he said.

The slowdown in the GDP growth rate bottomed out in the first quarter of the current fiscal when the growth rate was 5.7 per cent. It increased to 6.3 per cent in the second quarter, he said.

"This clearly marks a turnaround in the growth story. The sectors which were not performing that well in the last four-five quarters have also started turning around whether it is construction, real estate, trading, manufacturing or exports."

He was optimistic of the economy achieving the top end of the GDP growth target for next fiscal, which is between 7 and 7.5 per cent.

"My sense is it should be closer to 7.5 per cent. We will have growth steadily going up. So the first half should contribute more and the second half even more," he said.

Garg also countered Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian's argument that rising oil prices were a downside risk to achieving the growth target for next fiscal