FinMin to hold secretary-level meet on Sept 28

The Finance Ministry has called a meeting of secretaries on September 28 to assess the progress on various suggestions given by India Inc to give a fillip to the economy.

"The Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Secretary R Gopalan will discuss the issues raised by industry and find out how much progress has been made on that front with the secretaries of concerned departments," a senior Finance Ministry official said.

The 11 ministries, whose secretaries are slated to attend the meeting include Agriculture; Civil Aviation; Coal & Mines; Commerce and Industry; Communication and IT; Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution; Corporate Affairs; Environment and Forests; External Affairs; Finance (DEA and Revenue) and Rural Development.

The secretary-level meeting is a pre-cursor to the Finance Minister's meeting next month with the ministers from other departments, the official added.

Mukherjee, on August 1, held a meeting with industry bigwigs to discuss measures needed for re-energising the economy.

Some of the major suggestions made by the industry relate to relaxation in external commercial borrowings (ECBs) norms for infrastructure financing; urban infrastructure; coal linkage for power projects; tax exemption to industrial undertakings; fast-tracking system of environmental clearances; creation of a sovereign wealth fund; agriculture; and tax concessions in special economic zones (SEZ).

The suggestions, if implemented, are expected to provide a much-needed fillip to India Inc as the industrial production growth plunged to a 21-month low of 3.3% in July.

Also, during the first quarter of the current fiscal, the country witnessed growth of 7.7% against 9.3% in the corresponding period of the previous year.

On August 1, Mukherjee met industry bigwigs, including ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani; ITC Chairman YC Deveshwar; RPG Group Chairman Emeritus RP Goenka, Infosys Chairman Emeritus NR Narayan Murthy, Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, Mahindra & Mahindra Vice Chairman & MD Anand Mahindra and Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal, among others.