Top guns fail to walk the talk

The meeting between finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and India Inc’s top guns on August 1 had brought back “the spirit of 1991”, as one prominent industrialist said on prime time TV the same evening.

But for most, the “spirit” died down as soon as the cameras were switched off. The meeting had ended with each of them agreeing to send their list of five policy concerns to the minister within a month.

The month is coming to an end, and so far, only four of the dozen-odd industrialists who attended the meeting have responded. Those who have sent in their suggestions are N R Narayana Murthy, Anil Ambani, R P Goenka and Y C Deveshwar.

This is not the first time that industry has been slow in responding. The finance ministry had to send repeated reminders to industry captains to get feedback on quite a few discussion papers in recent times. For example, it had to extend the deadline for receiving suggestions from industry chambers on ways to tackle black money from July 15 to September 15.

In May this year, the ministry had invited industry chambers and think tanks to join discussions to decide the shape of a concept paper on the negative list for services required for the Goods & Services Tax. Initially, all comments were requested by June 15, but the deadline was later extended due to a lack of responses.

A finance ministry official, who did not wish to be named, said industry did not show much urgency when its views were sought. But once the policy paper came out, comments started pouring, he said.

As Mukherjee had assured he would coordinate the policy response within 60 days, his ministry wrote to the departments concerned to “look at the suggestions with a view to implementing them”.

Some of the suggestions to have come include enhancing the external commercial borrowing limit, increase in the ceiling for automatic approval for infrastructure, making the bond market more vibrant, addressing issues in the supply chain, and a single window clearance for environment and forest-related issues.

“They said the government should act fast. It is ironical that we are acting, but they are not. We have been politely reminding them to send their suggestions,” said another ministry official.

The official said the government would act on the suggestions if found feasible. The finance minister may hold another meeting with the industry shortly.