Govt warned against delay in liberalisation, deregulation

Alarmed by industrial growth touching a 10-year low during the current fiscal, the Economic Survey on Tuesday asked the government to resist any attempt to delay the process of liberalisation and deregulation.

"Government on its part must resist any attempts to delay the process of liberalisation and deregulation and continue to deepen the reforms and remove all obstacles and bottlenecks for unleashing the competitive forces in the industrial sector," the pre-Budget Economic Survey, tabled in Parliament, said.

This would entail removal of remaining infrastructural contraints especially in power, transport and telecom, reducing bureaucratic controls in all spheres, liberalizing the labour and land markets and removing other barriers to growth, it said.

The industrial slowdown witnessed in 2000-01 continued with greater intensity during the current year (2001-02) with a significant deceleration in all major sectors.

Overall industrial growth during April-December 2001-02 at 2.3 per cent, is substantially lower than the 5.8 per cent achieved during the corresponding period last year.

The pre-Budget document also asked the industry to continue to strive to be an efficient and competitive one and able to stand on its own in the face of rising domestic and foreign competition.

PTI

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