Yogi pitches UP to become India’s top economy

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Mar 4, 2021

Even as Uttar Pradesh is targetting to become a US$ trillion economy in the next few years, chief minister Yogi Adityanath has said his government was working to propel the state as the largest domestic economy soon.

In the current 2020-21 financial year, Maharashtra, UP and Tamil Nadu are ranked as the country’s top economies with the respective estimated Gross Domestic Product (GSDP) of Rs 30.7 trillion, Rs 19.4 trillion and Rs 19.2 trillion.

Speaking on the floor of the state legislative assembly yesterday, Yogi said UP’s GSDP had doubled under his rule (Mar 2017-present) from about Rs 10.9 trillion in 2015-16, when it was the 5th largest, to the second spot, and projected to touch Rs 21.73 trillion in 2021-22.

“If the GSDP of UP could be doubled over the past four years, the state will also become India’s top economy when we go for the state elections on the completion of our five year term,” he noted.

The CM stressed although the pandemic had impacted the coffers, yet his government worked dexterously on increasing revenues, plugging leakages and controlling expenses. He said the revenue collection had witnessed a steady increase under different heads of commercial tax, GST, excise, transport, mining, stamp & registration.

“When we had come to power, UP was ranked 14th on the Ease of Doing Business index and reckoned as the major constituent of BIMARU (chronically economically backward) states, while investors were not ready to come,”  he said adding UP was now ranked 2nd in the parameter.

Meanwhile, Yogi reiterated support to the new farm laws, saying they only provided a lucrative marketing alternative to the farmers and were not mandatory in nature. He questioned the posturing of its opponents for allegedly trying to deprive farmers from its benefits.