Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

Poll year begins

Another fraud

Taxation key to
economic growth

By M.N. Minocha

Congress in
reflective mode

By Jagdish Dwivedi

High growth
potential in tourism

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

The development of tourism as an industry is being given emphasis by most countries of the world. Tourism has been playing its due role in India and has made a record growth. A recent study by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has revealed that tourism’s contribution towards GDP is 5.9 per cent and towards employment (both direct and indirect) 8.78 per cent. There is an imperative need to promote tourism in a big way. India’s success could attract ..more

EDITORIAL

Poll year begins

Election year has well and truly begun in the State. The manner of opening of the current legislature session leaves no doubt about it. Opposition parties have served a clear notice that they mean business. By boycotting the Governor's address and staging demonstrations in and outside the Central Hall --- the venue of the joint session --- they have laid the foundation for a bitter campaign. The National Conference, which is the main opposition, not only stayed away from the Address but also gave a powerful display of its lungpower outside the legislature complex. The Panthers Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party disrupted the proceedings for a few minutes before staging a walk-out. The NC directed its fire against the Government. According to the party, there has been complete breakdown of the government machinery. It has found fault with governance for rampant corruption including in higher echelons of power, alarming unemployment, sky-rocketing prices, human rights violations and favouritism involved in deciding locations of new degree colleges. The thrust of its argument is that the Government has failed "on all fronts". The Panthers Party and the lone BJP member have expressed almost similar sentiments. The former appears to go a step further and has demanded the dismissal of the Government. It has presented a memorandum to the effect to the Governor. It has sought fresh elections under Governor's rule saying it has no faith that the Congress-People's Democratic Party coalition will hold free and fair elections. On the other hand, the Government has used the occasion to highlight its performance. The Governor's address is on familiar lines as it faithfully records what the Government thinks is its positive face: achievement of goal of zero tolerance to human rights violations; speedy construction of flats for Kashmiri migrants in this city and Nagrota at the outskirts; vacation of most buildings occupied by troops and the enhancement of rent in the case of others; preparation of a new policy to tackle joblessness, making administration transparent, corruption-free and responsive; infrastructure development; better tax realisation, more roads, more bridges, so on and so forth.

On a broader scale, the Governor's address has done well to acknowledge the good work done by police, para-military forces and the Army for restoration of peace. It has taken note of recommendations of four of the five Working Groups set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the movement of people across the Line of Control (so far 2215 persons from this side and 3061 from the other have benefited from Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalakot bus services) and expressed the hope about "an era of stability, peace and prosperity in the sub-continent" notwithstanding "recent unfortunate events in Pakistan." Admittedly, there has been a debate for a long time whether the Governor's Address serves any useful purpose. It is not confined to this State alone. Elsewhere too many people find it hackneyed and at times out of tune with the real scenario. In fact, they go to the extent of questioning the necessity of persisting with the institution of the Governor itself. Invariably the opposition times its protests with the entry of the Governor into the legislature. Its explanation, however is that means no disrespect to the Governor who is a Constitutional functionary. Instead it claims to project the failures of the Government which has prepared the Address. This approach is obvious from the Panthers Party's stance: it attempts to interrupt the Governor's address and boycotts it but wants a snap poll with the Governor at the helm! How does one explain this? There is hardly any political party in the country that has not acted in a similar fashion at one time or other while being in the opposition. At no point, they would drag the office of the Governor into the line of their attack.

For the moment, however, what is of interest to us is that the members of the political class are pushing their own election plans. In this case the NC is no more being soft on the Congress while striking hard at the PDP: it has painted the entire Government with the same black brush. Different modus operandi adopted by the NC on the one hand and the BJP and the Panthers Party on the other in registering their anti-Government mood shows that they will not fight the elections together. Despite their common styles the Panthers and the BJP are also unlikely to enter into any electoral alliance given their past history. What is becoming increasingly clear is that the Congress and the PDP will stick as one. It may sound incongruous if one goes by angry noises they have made against each other especially after 2005. That is what the politics is all about in modern times. It has no permanent friends and no permanent enemies and it can have allies who differ more than they agree. All said and done one can discuss the political scene in our State especially only in the context of current happenings. Nobody can say with certainty what will happen tomorrow. Everything can change in a jiffy. Only one thing can be asserted with confidence: the countdown for the elections has begun. No political party is prepared to be caught unawares as and when they are held between now and November.

Another fraud

There appears to be no end in sight to financial frauds in the State. We have so far come across fake chit fund companies and several other such instrumentalities to dupe people of their hard-earned money. Within the State apparatus we know of several instances of looting the public money. Now we come across yet another dimension of the desire to make a fast buck without any regard for means. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has detected a branch of a nationalised bank in Srinagar that has advanced loans worth crores of rupees to missing people. The CBI has registered a first information report against at least 86 persons including 78 beneficiaries and eight bank officers who have acted in connivance. Does it sound strange that the majority of the accused can't be traced? Their addresses and identity cards are false. Not only that. The photographs that they have used are bogus apart from other documents that they have submitted.

It is intriguing that the CBI has not been able to identify the guilty bank officials. It is something that should have been easily known. Assuming that there is really some problem one expects the CBI to remove this lacuna the soonest possible. It should firmly underline the distinction between public and personal money.

Taxation key to economic growth

By M.N. Minocha

Beginning January the North Block has become a prohibited zone as preliminary work on budget 2008-09 has begun. What would be the contour of the budget is a guess game at the moment? But if we analyse the economic growth for the current fiscal it is very satisfactory-around 9.2 per cent, which is a buoyant phase. Tax collection-direct and indirect have been more than expected. As a result, the direct tax collections have, for the first time, exceeded the indirect tax collections. Understandably, it is felt that there is a need to relook at the tax structure in the ensuing budget and examine the possibilities of lowering the tax rates.

During April-December 2007, the direct tax collections have grown by a whopping 42 per cent to Rs. 2.05 lakh crore. The collections for the full fiscal year are, therefore, likely to exceed Rs. 3 lakh crore against the budgeted target of Rs. 2.67 lakh crore. This continued buoyancy has increased the tax-GDP ratio from 9.2 per cent in 2003-04 to 11.4 per cent in 2006-07 and will exceed 12 per cent in 2007-08 against the target of 11.8 per cent. The fiscal deficit has also been declining and is well within the targets.

For starters, the corporate tax rate at 30 per cent compares favourably with the prevailing rates in the neighbourhood and is marginally higher than those in the developing countries. What makes the effective rate high are the surcharges/cess, dividend distribution tax without a flow through mechanism and fringe benefit tax. The surcharges and cess which have been introduced as 'temporary' measures and for specific purposes have become a permanent feature and part of the tax rate regime!

Over the years, the Income-tax Act has been amended to do away with multitude exemptions and deductions. We now have very few items of income which do not suffer tax, income from Special Economic Zones and income from infrastructure projects, being the significant ones. As a result, there is a convergence between the prescribed and the effective rate of tax. The minimum alternate tax also ensures that the gap between the prescribed and the effective rate of tax is bridged. Gone are the days when most large corporates used to pay effective tax significantly lower then the prescribed rate of tax.

As it happens, a booming economy has a tendency to hide inefficiencies in the system. There are at least four significant things that need to happen to make the tax collections even more robust. There needs to be better coverage and compliance of direct taxes. Political will seems to be a barrier in imposing tax on agricultural income. Technology needs to be put to far better and effective use than it has been put thus far.

There needs to be a better tax administration which will provide comfort to the taxpayer that needless and high pitched tax assessments will not result in the effective tax rate being higher than the prescribed rate. There needs to be an effective means to settle tax disputes speedily so that tax demands can result in effective tax revenues. As it currently stands, the tax administration is the biggest litigant with a track record which is not all too impressive. Leakages of tax revenues need to be plugged. Here again, technology can provide the necessary support.

History has repeatedly shown that reduction in tax rates has led to an increase in tax collections. If tax administration and tax compliance are suitably tightened, the tax collections would be further bolstered. There would then be a clear case of lowering tax rates which would enable higher disposable income. India could then join the list of countries like China and Spain which have reduced their rates of tax for the year 2008.

We have seen that Indian corporates have demonstrated an insatiable appetite to invest in the growth sectors. Infrastructure investments, public-private sectors partnership, etc., call for huge investment demands. A higher disposable profit will result in desired investment and will provide fuel for the growth of the Indian economy. There has been a considerable debate as to whether tax laws can be used to promote specific sectors of the economy. Indeed, worldwide, tax is used as one of the key tools to promote sectors of economy and India should be no different.

Economists are strongly in favour of a cut in the rates of income tax. The maximum rate, both for corporate and non-corporate taxpayers should be reduced from 30 per cent to 25 per cent and the middle tax slab for non-corporate taxpayers from 20 per cent to 15 per cent. The surcharge of 10 per cent of income tax was introduced as a temporary measure and has no justification to continue.

This tax cut will be beneficial to the country in several ways. The national exchequer will reap the benefit of increased revenue collections because of improved voluntary compliance and increase in economic activities. The size of the underground or black economy will diminish significantly. The annual increase of 30 per cent to 40 per cent in the income tax collections continuously during the last 3-5 years is an eloquent of the government's fiscal policy of moderate tax rates and enlarged tax base with very few tax exemptions and tax incentives.

The cut in tax rates will increase domestic savings and investments. It will also encourage greater inflows of technology and direct investments from abroad. Largely, due to our robust economic growth and moderate taxation and more particularly the taxation of capital gains from equity investments, the forex inflows have been steadily increasing. The increased economic activity as a result of tax cuts is likely to increase the annual growth rate to 10 - 10.5 per cent against 9 per cent targeted in the 11th Five Years' Plan.

The finance minister realises very well the importance of taxing people the minimum. This is evident from his article of November 17, 2002, while deprecating the recommendation of Kelkar's Task Force for more taxes, re-published in his book A View From the Outside: "In my view, no government should take money from the people, through taxes, more than what it needs for genuine capital and revenue expenditure. It is unfortunate that Mr. Kelkar's task force has ignored the character of the Indian State (predatory, rapacious, corrupt and profligate) and pleaded for more taxes. Instead, it should have pleaded for more equity and more efficiency."

Mr. Chidambaram should duly reward the taxpayers in his budget 2008-09, which would be his last, before the general elections of 2009. More than benefiting the taxpayers with some increases in their post-tax incomes, it will greatly benefit the country with increased growth, more employment and more economic prosperity. INAV

Congress in reflective mode

By Jagdish Dwivedi

The recent electoral drubbing in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab has unnerved the Congress party. It is in a reformative mood to retrieve the lost ground and make the party relevant to the changing political equations in the country. It has recently constituted 13-member AICC committee-Group to Look into Future Challenges-which soon submit a report to the party president, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, with far-reaching recommendations aimed at rejuvenating the party from AICC and PCC down to DCC and panchayat and booth levels-by making the constitution and functioning of these party panels democratic by doing away with the age-old 'nomination raj', thrived on patronage system.

The AICC functionaries would like to even equate the ongoing Congress exercise to how the Labour Party had tried to reinvent itself when confronted by the Margaret Thatcher era, even though the circumstances and priorities of the British experiment were quite different.

The report will deal with the task of making the 'top-heavy' Congress system more sensitive to the challenges and aspirations on the grassroots level and will also try to make the candidates selection process for various elections more local-centric, based on organisational merits than the much abused loyalty quotient. In a way, the report will be an attempt to recognise the 'limits of the high command' and accept the importance of the long-neglected Congress foot-soldiers, shaping the destiny of the party.

The year ended with a successive fourth defeat in Gujarat. Not only did the party lose, it hardly dented the huge lead built up by Chief Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, who has been in campaign mode ever since the warning bell sounded in the last Lok Sabha poll where the Congress actually led in a majority of Assembly segments. In just 42 months Congress slipped from leading in 91 segments to winning just 61 seats in a 182-member House.

Even this pales in comparison with the scene that unfolded in Uttar Pradesh. Rahul Gandhi's campaign did little to retrieve his party's fortunes. It stayed in fourth place in a state that sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha. The clear mandate given to Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party saw her forge a new rainbow coalition cutting across traditional caste and communal divides. By the year end, she was busy taking her message to states in the west, north and south. Social harmony, not caste assertion, was her watchword.

This twin assault on the Congress from the chief opposition party, the BJP, and from the youngest but most dynamic of the all India parties, the BSP, is what will pose a challenge in the days ahead. Paradoxically, the coalition government itself looks a lot more stable. A revitalised Hindutva party will make the Left think twice about forcing a mid-term poll. But governmental stability may come at a cost if the chief political entity at the core of the alliance continues to be in disarray.

Drift, even more than internal strife, marks the Congress as it moves towards the last laps of the five year cycle of a government. In times past, it ran the country on its own. It was not constrained by allies. More than that, it had ideas aplenty about what to do when things looked awry.

Even prime ministers with a minority on the floor were able to prevail on their adversaries. Indira Gandhi did so in 1969-70 by changing the terms of the political debate. She took the plunge and dissolved the Lok Sabha ahead of schedule and secured a clear majority. P.V. Narasimha Rao ran a minority ministry for just over two years from mid-1991 on. Even though he led the party to a rout, he left an indelible imprint on the economic landscape.

The comparisons are misleading. In the past, the Congress never came to power with as thin a lead in the popular vote. Even adding up the vote share of all its allies, the United Progressive Alliance polled only 39.8 per cent of the popular vote in May 2004. It was ahead of the rival Vajpayee led alliance but only by a whisker. The gap was half of one per cent.

More crucial is another figure: the Congress was on its own larger than the Bharatiya Janata Party. But it only achieved this prize status by entering into pre-poll alliances with dominant regional players. In his incisive work, The Congress: Indira to Sonia, the veteran party watcher, Vijay Sanghvi, shows how the Congress won as few as 83 seats on its own.

Economic growth means little when price rise puts cereals, and even more so pulses and cooking oil out of the reach for so many. The rural jobs scheme has no political back up to ensure it rebuilds loyalties on the ground. Rural uplift can mean little when the issues that afflict the farm sector merit little by way of concrete attention.

This gap is equally evident on the political front. As for the minorities, the rhetoric on riot victims in Gujarat is not matched by action in Maharashtra now under Congress rule for the better part of a decade. Backward Class aspirations were raised by hopes of reservation but have been dashed by a government unable to renounce, revise or stand up to its own plans.

To do this, it has to be seen to be sensitive to their day-to-day issues. Time is running out. The line of attack from the Hindutva or the Dalit-led party is no secret. Each will reach out in a manner that combines its core agenda with issues of concern to the aam admi. The economic plans and political work of the Congress had better match them on that score.

If one seeks to wrest power, the other hopes to undercut the Congress' historic coalition of the middle classes and the deprived sections.

No one should be under any illusion how high the stakes are. The Congress still has the advantage of the support of its allies and wary neutrality from the Left. Time will tell whether Sonia's Congress succeeds as Indira did in 1971, or, leads her party to a rout at the polls as Rajiv did in 1989. INAV

High growth potential in tourism

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

There is an imperative need to promote tourism in a big way. India’s success could attract more and more tourists for eco-tourism, religious tourism, historical tourism, medical tourism etc. Every single State has some unique characteristics, which could interest tourists in one way or the other. The ‘Incredible India’ campaign has been quite successful and driven the growth of tourism in the country. It captures the underlying spirit of the country, its culture, tradition and spirituality. As a result tourist arrivals have increased dramatically. During the Tenth Plan period, tourist arrivals grew by a phenomenal 78 per cent while foreign exchange earnings increased by around 120 per cent. According to the Tourism Ministry, a whopping 420 million domestic tourists were recorded in 2006. The opening up of air transport and emergence of low-cost carriers has greatly helped boost up tourist arrivals to this country.

A study conducted by FICCI on development perspective of eco and rural tourism revealed that it had the highest employment and investment ratio. Every additional investment of Rs 10 crore has the potential to generate 47.5 jobs. Further, every direct job created in tourism leads to a creation of 77 jobs in other related sectors of the industry, the study stated. Besides the multiplier effect of tourism generates high revenue-capital ratio in the Indian context. Indirect employment generated in the form of revival of traditional arts and crafts, development of communication, hotels etc.

Another study by McKinsey has revealed that medical tourism could generate as much as Rs 100 billion of revenue for India by 2012. The success of medical tourism will build bigger capacities and draw more investment for the health sector.

Attracting foreign tourists has become a priority and there are expectations of reaching the 10 million mark by the end of the 11th Plan period. There is presently one lakh approved quality accommodation which should be increased to two lakh by 2011, according to report by a working group on tourism for the Eleventh Plan. According to Subhash Goyal, President of the Indian Association of Tour Operators, "if we implement the suggestions by the Ministry of Tourism, it will not be difficult to attract 10 million (foreign) tourists".

Infrastructure Development

The need for creating adequate infrastructure to attract more tourists, specially those from foreign countries, has been a long felt need. The Tourism Ministry has earmarked Rs 650 crore budget allocation for this fiscal to develop sites within the country. The Ministry has decided to give a maximum of Rs 50 crore (and Rs 25 crore) to State Governments to develop each circuit and destination.

Accordingly it has been planned to set up 100 heritage circuits by the end of the 11th Plan of which 25 are expected to be of International standard. The government also plans to build world-class infrastructure at Hampi, Agra, Konark, Khajuraho, Orccha and Datia along with Buddhist and Jain centres. To develop cultural tourism, the government has identified six museums at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Cochin which would be upgraded to compete with global standards.

As religious tourism has been gaining ground for quite some time, the Buddhist area of Raghir, Nalanda and Bodh Gaya have also been chosen for development. A special train has been introduced for the Buddhist pilgrimage from India and abroad particularly from the South Asian countries to promote tourism.

However challenges still remain. The challenge is to create around 100,000 additional star category hotel rooms or good quality resorts in the next three years. The Tourism Ministry has decided to create ‘land banks’ by acquiring land for building hotels through public-private partnerships on a built-operate basis.

There is also need to improve roadways, transportation, ensure clean and hygienic environment and ensure safety and security conditions in the areas and give these places a modern look. Improvement of surroundings of tourist spots, specially in rural areas and ensuring cleanliness needs to be given due attention. It needs to mentioned here that tourists should not feel any inadequacy of anything and enjoy their travel in India.

The working group suggestions, if implemented, can definitely boost tourism in the country. However, there is need to concentrate on countries such as South Africa, Israel, Spain, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Brazil and Argentina which would help in attracting tourists to India. Fewer tourists come to India from these countries, so they offer high growth potential, the report said. Promotion of business-related travel by building convention centres of international standards in major cities and new tourist centres has also been envisaged in the report. Moreover, the country needs to prepare strategies to increase per capita expenditure on shopping.

India has emerged as the 4th favoured destination for holidays above South Africa and Switzerland, as per a survey undertaken by Conde Nast Traveller magazine for their 2006 Readers Travel Awards. It is indeed a big country with various types of unique destinations and natural locales. It is also a region of the world’s greatest biodiversity while, on the other hand, a place where history is found embedded in palaces, monuments and conservation sites. As such, the average duration of stay of a tourist in Singapore is about 5 days as against 26 days in India because of the latter’s vast tourist potential.

It would thus not be difficult to transform the country into a 365 days-a-year destination where tourists would find themselves comfortable at each and every place, whether the visit is intended for historical, religious, ecological or health reasons. (PIB)

Sustaining high growth- challenges ahead

By S. Sethuraman

Has India - now a trillion-dollar economy - moved to a higher growth trajectory, as CSO data over the four-years ending 2006-07 point to an 8.6 per cent average, a new record for the Indian economy?

This optimism of Finance Minister P Chidambaram over the more than expected growth at 9.4 per cent in 2006-07, highest in l8 years since the first double digit growth (10.5 per cent) in 1988-89, may be justified, even if allowance is made for moderation in 2007-08 due both to domestic (mainly, inflationary pressures) and external factors (like a further rise in global oil prices). RBI has assumed growth at "around 8.5 per cent) while Mr. Chidambaram thinks that a 9 per cent rise is possible in this fiscal also.

However, sustaining a growth at 9-10 per cent, as envisaged in the 11th five year plan (2007-12) will pose major challenges in terms of public investments, with the concurrent commitment to fiscal consolidation, policy changes to induce greater flow of private investments, domestic and foreign, price stability and resolving structural, regional and social imbalances. While household savings represent the bulk of gross domestic savings, there has to be a significant turnaround in public savings to an average of 3-4 per cent of GDP in the medium-term to attain the 9.5 per cent growth target of the 11th plan.

Two areas recently highlighted by the Prime Minister are severe power shortage and stagnation in agriculture - areas in which the Centre itself has not moved with the requisite expedition but for the latest initiatives on agriculture, which have to be implemented largely by the States with all the fiscal sops provided to them. Reversal of the stagnation in agriculture calls for a multi-pronged strategy. States have not uniformly acted on reforms in the power sector either.

CSO's revision of its advance estimate from 9.2 per cent to 9.4 per cent for 2006-07 as against 9 per cent in 2005-06 is due to the continuing upswing in manufacturing (12.3 per cent) and Services. It was the first time that manufacturing and industry as a whole (11.3 per cent) registered double digit growth since l995-96. Industry and services account for 82 per cent of GDP. Contribution to growth in 2006-07 from agriculture was only 2.7 per cent while service sectors like trade, hotels, transport and communications and real estate, financing and insurance recorded 13 per cent and 10.6 per cent respectively. Core infrastructure sectors achieved 8.6 per cent growth, the highest for many years.

Overall, 2006-07 can be said to be the best year for the Indian economy in the post-liberalisation era with robust growth unaffected by some hardening of interest rates to contain inflation. Though the annual rate of inflation has declined somewhat below 6 per cent in recent weeks, it remains a cause for concern as the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh noted, in view of the rise in prices of essential commodities in which there is shortage which could be overcome only over time as production of agricultural commodities has to increase significantly.

The Reserve Bank of India has not lowered its guard and the monetary policy for 2007-08 aims to maintain inflation at an "acceptable level" (around 5 per cent). Money supply which has been growing at 20-21 per cent in 2006-07 is to be contained at around 17 to 17.5 per cent in consonance with the outlook on growth (8.5 per cent) and inflation (4.5 to 5 per cent), according to the annual monetary policy statement for 2007-08. Bank credit to commercial sector is also to be brought down to 24-25 per cent from the average of 29.8 per cent over the last four years.

With Indian agriculture still substantially dependent on rainfall, the South-West Monson has arrived on time, hitting the Kerala coast in the last week of May. A fairly normal monsoon for 2007 is forecast by the Meteorological Department. While the timely arrival of monsoon and its even spread could help to moderate a slowdown in growth this year - widely predicted by international economic institutions with projected growth rates for India varying from 7.8 to 8.4 per cent - it may not help to alleviate the shortage of essential farm commodities whose output has stagnated over the past decade.

India is no longer self-sufficient in foodgrains, especially wheat, and the situation has been compounded by low procurement by Government agencies. RBI says managing the supply situation is emerging as "a formidable challenge, especially as constraints on the supply response to the growth momentum have become more binding than before". (to inflationary pressures)

The highly volatile oil market, non-oil commodity (including foodgrain) prices, bouts of instability in financial markets and the undiminished concerns on global imbalances could all have an impact on developing countries. The US economy perceptibly slowed down in the first quarter of 2007 with a mere 0.6 per cent growth amid the continuing weakness in housing markets. USA being the largest market for most developing countries, a slowdown there could affect growth prospects of the latter.

So far, India has maintained dynamism in exports, despite the steep rise in oil imports (around 40 billion dollars in 2006-07) and non-oil imports including capital goods for capacity expansion, and the current account deficit resulting from trade gaps and other transactions has been kept at modest levels. Capital flows and commercial borrowings have been bridging the deficits and augmenting the reserves which now stand at 204 billion dollars.

In 2006-07, foreign direct investment flows totaled over 17 billion dollars in the first eleven months while portfolio flows over 9 billion making a total of 26 billion dollar, also a record. FDI included acquisition of share of Indian companies by non-residents. NRI deposits in Indian bank also recorded a rise by over 3 billion dollars to total at 38.90 billion dollars.

Growth of the economy in recent years has been fuelled by an investment surge for capacity expansion with increasing domestic consumption and aggregate demand, supported by a significant rise in nation's savings. Whatever the infrastructural bottlenecks and other constraints, manufacturing and services are expected to maintain the current momentum to ensure that India remains on the high growth trajectory in the current year. (IPA Service)