The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has assured India Inc of a ‘second chapter' of economic reforms, alongside concrete measures aimed at eliminating any ‘trust deficit' between the Government and industry.
“There was an assurance of action in a time-bound manner. On things like the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the Direct Taxes Code (DTC), the Finance Minister himself expressed his readiness to act and the need for Government, politicians and industry to come together,” Mr Anand Mahindra, Vice-Chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra, told reporters after a nearly two-and-a-half-hour brainstorming session between the Finance Minister and the honchos of Corporate India here on Monday.
“The meeting was a broad discussion about creating a new coalition between business and the Government in order to create a second chapter of reforms,” Mr Mahindra added.
Most industry leaders present at the meeting came out visibly satisfied, with some even going on to say that the “trust deficit” between India Inc and the Government has now “vanished”.
Today's meeting between the Government and industry came in the backdrop of widespread perception that economic growth was faltering on account of lack of adequate movement on policies and institutional processes. The Finance Minister sought to allay fears of policy paralysis, stating that he found no basis for such cynicism. Mr Mukherjee told captains of industry that he found such views to be based more on perception than facts, as several significant policy initiatives had, in fact, been taken in the recent past and many others were in the pipeline.
Mr Anand Sharma, Commerce and Industry Minister, was also present at the meeting. He later told reporters that industry leaders have been asked to come up with five suggestions each on how reforms should be taken forward. They have four weeks to do so and the Finance Ministry will provide the Government's response to them after consultations with other ministries.
The Commerce Minister also noted that this was only the first of many such interactions planned in the coming days between Government and industry. Mr Anil Ambani, Chairman, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), said in a statement issued after the meeting that Monday's interaction would certainly go a long way in building the momentum needed to catalyse economic growth. He said both ministers were receptive to a large number of suggestions made by industry to accelerate growth in key infrastructure sectors.
Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Airtel Group, told reporters that the meeting was very satisfactory and that he had come out of it extremely confident that Government was “fully behind Indian industry” and that they would look at acceleration of industrial activity as well as the country's economy.