Finance Minister P Chidamabaram's intention to come out with a new set of economy policy initiatives may take a while to get off the starting blocks as industry has not kept its part of the bargain.
Less than 24 hours after presenting this year's Budget, Chidambaram had said he would meet industry again in two months - on May 1 - to remove the obstacles to growth. But he wanted the list of issues 15 days before the meeting.
Chidambaram's declaration, coming on the heels of industry's complaints that this year's Budget lacked a reforms thrust, was a signal that policy-making could well become a rolling process, not confined to the Budget.
With only 11 days to go for the meeting, no industry association has submitted the list. In fact, at the time of writing this article, the industry associations were still checking with the finance minister's office the likely date of the meeting.
An industry stalwart said he wrote to his chamber, which he once headed as president, on Monday, asking about the progress on the preparation for the meeting. Till yesterday, he was in the dark.
Confederation of Indian Industry director-general N Srinivasan told Business Standard on Wednesday that the association had set up a task force to look into the issues, which would submit its report "in the next few days". Based on the task force's findings, CII will submit its list to the finance minister.
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry says it has prepared a detailed report, looking at issues that cut across sectors as well as those that pertain to specific sectors. Ficci Secretary-General Amit Mitra said over phone from China, where the chamber's brass is, that the report would be submitted by the end of this month.
Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry seems likely to be the first to submit its report, but will take at least a couple of days more.
"We have prepared the list. We are in the process of submitting it. We will do it in a couple of days or so," said its president, Anil Aggrawal.Do you want to discuss stock tips? Do you know a hot one? Join the Stock Market Investments Discussion Group
