The government pushed through key legislations on Land Acquisition, Lokpal and Companies Act in 2013 though there was little action on the much awaited GST, DTC and Insurance Bills this year.
"We would have liked to see faster progress on Goods and Services Tax (GST), infrastructure regulation, and ease of doing business reforms... The upcoming elections mean policy actions will be muted, with decision making moving at a snail's pace. The window for economic reforms, at least in the first half of the year, is rather small," CII President Kris Gopalakrishnan told PTI.
Greater clarity on GAAR rules and issuance of safe harbour norms for transfer pricing were positive moves. The government established the National Investment and Manufacturing Zones and took decisions to kickstart stalled projects by opening up foreign direct investment in various sectors like telecom and defence.
The government also initiated steps to boost exports and to check unwanted imports such as gold.
However, the industry felt that the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme to plug subsidy leakages should have started much earlier, not in the penultimate year of the government.
"The scorecard on reforms front has been rather below expectations," Assocham president Rana Kapoor said.
The main problem in 2013 has been the inability of the government, in the wake of several factors such as adverse court rulings, perceptions of scams and lack of political consensus to take decisions which could have pulled the industry and the economy out of the slackness. In the process, decision making became a major casualty as honest officers were not willing to stick their neck out," he added.
Little was done to make business environment in the country more conducive, industry leaders said. A recent World Bank study ranks India at 134th position among 189 countries in terms of ease of doing business.
Ficci President Sidharth Birla said, "We should prioritise areas that would have maximum impact in terms of improving ease of doing business and give quick attention to these in a stipulated time frame.
As we enter 2014, the key challenge in front of policymakers is to revive the domestic investment cycle. Though CCI has cleared several large projects, it is equally important to ensure implementation of these on the ground. Further, clarity in policy formulation and greater certainty in rules and regulations is critical.
"In the year of general elections, the corporate sector maintains a cautious approach as policy machinery inherently tends to slow down. We did see some bold policy moves over the last few months, but some major reform measures like GST have not seen progress," Birla said.
Improvement in the quality of governance post elections due in 2014 could be a game changer.
"Good governance is at the very heart of economic growth and poverty reduction... In our own country, we have seen vast differences across states in development outcomes from out of the same mix of development policies," PHD Chamber of Commerce President Sharad Jaipuria said.
With hopes riding high on the outcome of the upcoming General Elections and their positive impact on the country's business environment, the next government will clearly have its task cut out to meet the challenges for the promotion of industry, trade and entrepreneurship to achieve higher and all-inclusive-growth and fulfill massive expectations.
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