India Inc wants Centre to take more steps on ease of doing business

Industry representatives asked officials to "create more freedom for industry to perform".

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her officers on Thursday met representatives of India Inc and trade unions for pre-Budget consultations. While industrialists asked the Centre to take more steps to augment ease of doing business, trade bodies stressed minimum wages, an income-tax ceiling, and pensions.

Industry representatives, who included Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, Confederation of Indian Industry President Vikram Kirloskar, and Assocham President Balkrishna Goenka, asked officials to “create more freedom for industry to perform”.

The corporate leaders highlighted several issues, including income tax roadblocks coming in the way of mergers and acquisitions, or hobbling businesses.

“I have come here today to discuss only one thing — make doing business easy in the country. That was what my thrust was,” Mittal told media persons after the meeting.

“The idea is to create more freedom for industry to perform. The finance minister, with her associates and secretaries, received them (industry representatives ) very well. What we look forward to in this Budget is that it unleashes the energy of Indian entrepreneurs to do more,” Mittal said.

Expressing similar views, Assocham President Balkrishna Goenka said for “ease of doing business, states had to play an important role” and last-mile issues were there and needed to be resolved. Kirloskar said: “We talked about ease of doing business, which is the issue concerning many industries.”

RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group head Sanjiv Goenka said the discussions “centred more around what can be done to stimulate growth, to facilitate the ease of doing business”.

“The finance minister and her team were extremely open to all suggestions,” Goenka said, adding that “this is the first time I have seen this kind of response from the government”.

On the current slowdown and its impact on capacity utilisation across many industries, Goenka said industry recognised that it could take up to four quarters before capacity utilisation reached its peak.

Business Standard