 "Amitabh Kant, Secretary, DIPP")
Given the delay over the passage of the GST Bill, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) secretary Amitabh Kant on Friday said Indians might need to start thinking whether the political framework needs restructuring.
Speaking at the annual general meeting of industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), Kant said “Politics in India is not in line with the economic realities”.
He added it was surprising that a government controlling more than two-thirds of the seats in Lok Sabha was unable to pass crucial legislation due to pressure from the Rajya Sahba, which is dominated by the Opposition. With only three working days are left in the winter session of Parliament, the passage of the tax reform legislation increasingly looks uncertain.
Supreme Court Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri also pleaded political parties to engage in active bipartisan action to help pass laws like GST which most people believe will benefit the country.
Economic Affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das along with Medium Small and Micro Enterprises secretary Anup Pujari, Steel secretary Aruna Sundarajan and Personnel secretary Sanjay Kothari also participated in the event.
Das said the government was undertaking administrative action to be ready when GST is implemented. Since GST is connected to transactions and not income, it can be implemented at any point of time in a financial year, he said.
O the matter of stressed assets burdening the banking sector, Das said the finance ministry aims to take on the issue through ‘major decisions in the next two months’.
Gross Non Performing Assets (NPA) of public sector banks rose to Rs 3.14 lakh crore at the end of September 2015. Wilful defaulters account for 20% of the gross NPAs of Public sector banks.
Stressing India remained a major growth engine, he pointed out the Eurozone is in crisis, recovery is slow in United States and China faced slowdown. For India to achieve and maintain high growth of over nine per cent, reforms need to continuous and not be an annual event as the budget.
Among sectors, skill development and agriculture remained challenges and considerable innovations are necessary, he said.
Das said, “Bolstering domestic investment and lifting domestic demand, especially in rural areas also remained difficult but solvable problems”.
However, Kant said these issues did not weigh enough on domestic industrial growth for it to be termed gloomy and challenged the notion that reforms were stuck.
"The reforms in last 15 months have been the best ever in India's history,” he said. Pointing to reforms in 14 key sectors including civil aviation, construction and broadcasting which had allowed greater amount of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) through the automatic route, he said almost 95% of FDI in the country came through the automatic route.
Talking on reforms, Personnel Secretary Sanjay Kothari said the government is taking several steps in providing social skills to Group C and Group D employees who constitute over 90% of the workforce and deal regularly with the public.
He also mentioned that job interviews will be discontinued for these two categories of employees with a view to reduce corruption and collusion in the process from January 1, 2016.
