PM ignored tax issues, ease of doing biz in India poor: Godrej

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "overlooked" key concerns like the ease of doing business in India arising out of retrospective tax amendments in his address to Parliament, Chairman of Godrej Group Adi Godrej today said.

"I think he (PM) has overlooked some facts in that speech. One of the biggest mistakes we made was when we brought in retrospective amendments in the budget two years ago... He (PM) forgot that one of the biggest problems has always been the ease of doing business in India," Godrej told CNN-IBN on the show 'Devil's Advocate'.

Observing that the retrospective tax amendments have created a "tremendous negative perception of India on foreign shores", Godrej said the ease of doing business in India had worsened considerably in the recent past, leading to economic woes that the country is facing at present.

Breaking his silence on the state of economy and the rapid slide in the rupee value, Prime Minister Singh made an elaborate statement in Parliament yesterday, ruling out rollback of reforms and bringing in capital controls while appealing for a political consensus to put the economy back on high-growth path.

However, his efforts to weave a consensus did not meet with any success after he and the BJP got into a slug-fest over who was responsible for the current situation.

Asserting that the government would act to reduce the current account deficit (CAD) and fiscal deficit to bring improvement in the economy, the Prime Minister said they would make every effort to maintain a macro-economic framework friendly to foreign capital inflows to enable orderly financing of the CAD.