As the Modi Government nears its second anniversary, industry body Assocham today said “a lot more is required” to be done on tax disputes and concerns remain on huge toxic assets in the banking system.
Calling the NDA Government “a work in progress”, the business lobby group gave it an overall performance rating of 7 on a scale of 10.
On the country’s macroeconomic picture, Assocham said it has “certainly been steadied while some bold moves have been made in roads, highways, railways and energy sectors”.
However, it called for an “aggressive” approach to tackle problems faced by the agriculture sector and uplift the country’s vast rural population”.
According to Assocham President Sunil Kanoria, the wish-list includes considerable traction in disinvestment, resolution of taxation disputes, agriculture reforms and most importantly the GST Bill, adding that a “lot more is required as far as tax disputes and litigation are concerned”.
“It would be only fair to call the NDA Government as work in progress since it would take time before projects in sectors such as the railways and the highways bear fruit. However, the bigger area of concern, the huge toxic assets of the public sector banks, remains, mainly because of business downturn,” Kanoria said.
“The Government and RBI both need to handle the issue of non-performing assets (NPAs) with extreme care and banks should be empowered to take commercial decisions in the case of stressed assets without any fear of facing reprisals on post-mortem of their actions at a much later date.”