Govt is getting flak for being ‘too fast’: Jaitley

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said the government is being criticised for being “too fast”. Leading banker Deepak Parekh’s had said on Wednesday that impatience has begun to creep in among businessmen as nothing has changed on ground in the first nine months of the Narendra Modi-led government.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said the government is being criticised for being “too fast”.

"We have to actually see what are the various steps that we have taken and the community of investors both within and outside the country watch us," the finance minister said while launching the government’s e-Biz portal. "In the first instance, what is the credibility of this government? What is the decisiveness of our decision making process? What is the process by which the government treats businesses? And it’s an irony that after having seen lethargic governments, you today have a government which is criticised for being too fast."

Jaitley, however, did not make any direct reference to Parekh’s comments but said that government has chose the ordinance route to expedite legislative changes and promote businesses.

“Why you bring ordinances, you should wait till the cows come home and everybody can be settled and decisions can be taken. So in fact one great criticism which has come is you should have waited and not acted fast,” he said.

Jaitley, who is scheduled to present the Union Budget 2015-16 on February 28, promised to make it easier to do business, by expediting environmental clearances for projects and encourage investments. Inviting investments from domestic and global investors is the best way to deal with the problem of poverty and increase jobs in the country, he added.

The government on Thursday launched 11 central government services on the e-Biz portal, and plans to increase it to 27 soon, to facilitate ease of doing business in India. At a time when economies are facing challenges, Jaitley said, “history has provided us with a rare opportunity where the world is looking at us with investment and the current government is determined, having eased many processes, to go on that path.”