Deepak Parekh slams govt for talking and not acting

Industry still optimistic but impatience is strong sentiment, feels HDFC chief

GN Bureau | February 18, 2015


#narendra modi   #budget   #government   #industry   #labour   #manufacturing   #oil   #deepak parekh  

Chairman of HDFC Deepak Parekh, who has been praising and warning Modi government during the last few months, has come out in strong terms against the administration as India gets into budget season.

He told a news agency on Wednesday that there have been no improvements on ease of doing business in the country despite the government's promise.

Prime minister Narendra Modi had 'lucky 9-months' with fall in oil price but no change on ground and no improvement on ease of doing business, Parekh said, expressing the sentiments of the business community.

Parekh said the industry was still optimistic, but impatience is creeping in as optimism is not translating into revenue.

Last week, he had asked the government to weed out corruption and had said that shell companies were being used for paying bribes and 'speed money' remains a challenge for corporates.

"Speed money facilitates routine transactions and services, except they get delivered faster. So rampant is this practice that many chiefs have called for a legalisation of 'facilitation payments'. I don't agree with this. It still remains a bribe," Parekh had said at a CII seminar.

Sectors like infrastructure, realty, metals & mining, defence, power and utilities are more prone to corruption, he said.

"While the government has firmly declared its intent to improve the ease of doing business, it needs to focus its efforts equally on weeding out corruption," Parekh said.

Similarly, last year in an interview to a business newspaper Parekh had said ‘Make in India’ is a good idea, as it is aimed at boosting manufacturing. “But it will remain on paper if you continue to have difficulty in getting land and labour.

“We need to liberalise land acquisition and labour laws. The prime minister is saying everywhere that he will make doing business easy. The ease of doing businesses involves infrastructure, land and labour. The PM is also talking about single-window clearance for projects; all these ideas need to be implemented now.”

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