New Delhi: In a sign that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is mindful of the chaos which the demonetisation exercise has unleashed on the cash circulation system of the country, leaving the common man queueing up to withdraw his own hard earned money even as the Centre's December 30 deadline to deposit the old currency is just days away, Mr Modi held high-level deliberations with economists at Niti Aayog on Tuesday in the presence of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the think tank's top brass to thrash out a fiscal roadmap for the future.
The Government's main concern is the massive fall in jobs especially in small scale industries like textiles, leather, jewellery and allied sectors. With the crucial Uttar Pradesh assembly elections weeks away, the near closure of leather, carpet, brass and bangles industries - products of which the state is the chief producer - seems to be on the Government's radar. Due to lack of buyers for their produce, farmers have also reduced their cultivation areas drastically.
With revenue collection falling in the wake of cash crunch, and sales hit across various sectors, it seems unlikely that the Government is going to tinker with the tax structure in the forthcoming Union Budget.
Sources privy to the meet told this newspaper that the meeting focussed on how to sustain jobs in the current scenario and to ensure that no major rejig is done with the current tax structure after stock markets reacted negatively on December 26, to the Prime Minister's December 24 remark that was seen as government hinting at imposition of long term capital gains tax on profit made from investments in shares.
