GDP would have been $5 trillion long ago if we had not imported gold: Nilesh Shah

Mumbai: Nilesh Shah, a temporary member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PM-EAC), on Monday said India would have achieved the $5 trillion GDP target “much earlier” if it had not been in the habit of importing gold. Would have taken it. Shah, a veteran of the mutual fund industry, said Indians have spent nearly $500 billion on gold imports alone in the last 21 years.

Shah said, “We are working towards achieving the Prime Minister’s target of $5 trillion Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but we could have become a $5 trillion economy long ago by staying away from just one habit. We have probably lost one-third of India’s GDP by not making the right financial investments.”

Citing official data, Shah, managing director and chief executive officer of Kotak Asset Management Company, said Indians have spent $375 billion on gold imports on a net basis in the last 21 years. Along with this, news of gold smuggling also comes regularly. He said, “If that money had been invested in entrepreneurs like Tata, Ambani, Birla, Wadia, and Adani instead of gold, then imagine what our GDP would have been. What would have been the growth, what would have been our per capita GDP?”