India Inc hopes government furthers reforms

New Delhi, May 25:

Unanimous in their praise of the government for turning around business confidence, India Inc, on the completion of NDA’s first year in office on Monday, hoped for further reform initiatives.

“The main achievement of the government in the past year is the creation of a positive business sentiment, restoration of investor confidence by framing policies that rest on transparency and fairness,” Jyotsna Suri, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) told reporters here.

“While the government has laid a strong foundation for sustainable higher growth by laying out a sound roadmap, implementing the same in true spirit remains the key challenge,” she added.

Pointing to the slowing down of rural and urban demand as a significant cause for concern, Suri said government spending on infrastructure projects must rise significantly to fuel the industrial economy.

“The government should now focus on raising farm productivity and formulate a water policy,” Suri said.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce of India (Assocham) said it expects further reform initiatives in the next two quarters along with more attention to the rural economy.

“Having taken several initiatives to unclog infrastructure projects and improve ease of doing business, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is expected to give increased attention to the rural economy, although several of the financial inclusion programmes like the Jan Dhan Yojana would help the countryside,” Assocham president Rana Kapoor said in a statement here.

He said there are select sectors of the economy which are under stress, including housing, real estate, banking and telecom.

Merchandise exports are also causing some anxiety of late with slowdown in global demand, he added.

“Private investments need a further push to gain momentum, which can be achieved through timely implementation of GST (Goods and Srevices Tax), clearance of land related hurdles, absolute clarity in tax policies, reduction in interest rates and stimulating consumer demand,” Suri told media persons here.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) director general Chandrajit Banerjee said in a statement here that “policies have contributed to infusing more competition into the market, harnessing new levers of growth and dispersing more powers to state governments in the spirit of federalism.

“Combined with effective measures to tackle subsidy leakages, auction of natural resources and passing of critical legislation, CII believes that these steps would aid India’s GDP growth to accelerate to 8.2 percent during the year,” Banerjee said. (IANS)