No policy paralysis, govt moving ahead with reforms: R Gopalan, Department of Economic Affairs

NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry today asserted that the government is moving ahead on the path of economic reforms though much more is needed to be done.

"If you talk of policy paralysis, I think it is extremely wrong. Look at all the legislations we have brought, including new laws on mines and minerals, DTC, GST," Department of Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

The government, he added, was moving ahead with economic reforms though much more could be done.

Perceived paralysis in policy decisions and government inaction on important economic issues have been a matter of debate in the recent past, with many industry leaders including technology czar Azim Premji seeking urgent steps from policy makers to tackle the issue.

Besides, a group of prominent personalities, through open letters, has also sought urgent steps in this regard.

Earlier this week, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani at Indian Chapter of the World Economic Forum had asked the government to move faster in its decision making and put to rest any notion about policy paralysis due to political constraints.

Gopalan said, "We are on the right path for reform, but we need to do much more, especially in capital markets to make it more participatory."

Moreover, he added, the FDI and credit inflows have gone up and the agriculture and services sectors were expected to perform better.

On the possibility of doing away with the Securities Transaction Tax (STT), he said, "I agree that it is bad to have a tax on transactions. We are looking at the issue of reducing STT."