Jaitley urges industry help in honest decision-making

Errors in decision-making and corruption in decision-making need to be looked at differently, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday in a reference to probes against some leading industrialists and retired bureaucrats for graft.

"The language of the Prevention of Corruption Act is deterring a large number of civil servants from taking decisions," Jaitley said here addressing the national conference of industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) on the many challenges before the government.

"The Law Commission also has, in its recommendations, spoken of this requiring a re-look," he added.

"I urge industry to set up working group to assist on the debate on the changes required about separating error in decision making from corruption in decision-making," the finance minister said.

He mentioned in this connection a proposal in his first full budget presented in February that seeks to substitute a regime of prior permissions for business by a regulatory mechanism that intervenes only when guidelines are violated. A committee has been set up to help institute such a system, Jaitley added.