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Tarun Das attacks govt for non-performance

Surajeet Das Gupta

In a strong attack on the performance of the Vajpayee government, the director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Tarun Das, said that it has been zero on implementation of policies and infrastructure projects, and "there is weakness in governance as the bureaucracy has lost interest and is demoralised."

CII, Das pointed out, has asked for a meeting with the Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha, to convey the industry's disillusionment with the government on the economic front.

Das was also critical of the slow pace of the divestment process which, he said, was getting delayed due to opposition from certain sections involved in the process.

Das' criticism of the government comes just three months after the CII had been unanimous in supporting the union Budget with some of its members rating it as a perfect 10.

"There is zero attention in government on implementation," Das pointed out. "There is no movement to stimulate infrastructure with funds lying there and not being utilised. We still have nine months to go, and what we need is not new policies or projects but implementation of projects; otherwise I do not see there is any way the industry could recover," Das said.

Das identified various projects, which have been cleared, but there is no attempt at implementation. For instance, he said that the project on building rural roads has come a cropper, there is very little initiative on the national highway development programme and the railways, which have a certain amount allocated for capital expenditure, are not using the money.

He also said that there has not been a single power project, which has got off the ground, especially with the government policy shifting from generation to distribution. Das said, while the government cleared the policy of 100 per cent foreign direct investment in airports, not a single airport project has taken off.

"The decline in stock market, the Unit Trust of India crises, together with the decline in industrial production, have created a situation where it will be very difficult for the government to achieve its target of 5 per cent GDP growth," said Das.

Critical of the slow pace of divestment, Das said: "The divestment process is very slow because there are so many people who are resisting it. If this does not change, there is no way the government will achieve its target for divestment as earmarked in the Budget."

Das also pointed out that there is a growing feeling within the domestic industry that it is no longer viable to take up greenfield projects. "There is large over-capacity in manufacturing, more imports, and in the WTO regime, the domestic industry is asking whether there is any economic justification in making new investments in greenfield projects. What they are doing is upgrading their technologies to remain in competition".

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