New Delhi, August 24
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said that a high-level committee on infrastructure would be set up to monitor the progress of key projects, including airports, power, telecommunications, roads and ports.
The committee, which will be chaired by the Prime Minister himself, will monitor the progress in these sectors on a quarterly basis to ensure that targets are met.
The Planning Commission will function as the executive arm of the committee, identifying bottlenecks in policy implementation, guiding the relevant ministries to speed up the implementation of projects and generating ideas for the committee’s consideration.
“I have asked the Planning Commission to prepare a paper indicating the regulatory structures for different areas such as power, road, sand ports. The paper will look at the gaps in our existing systems, comparing them with the international best practice and will recommend changes in existing policy, if necessary”, the Prime Minister said while delivering the inaugural speech at the Assocham-organised JRD Tata Centenary Celebrations here.
The Prime Minister will also reconstitute his Council of Trade and Industry as the “tyranny of over-regulation must end”.
“One of the areas of focus of this Council will be the reduction of the Inspector Raj”, he said.
Dr Manmohan Singh said that the government would ensure that there was a regulatory framework wherever it was needed and that was “transparent and was independent of government and, therefore, provided an impartial balance between public sector and private sector suppliers and was also based on international best practices”.
The acceleration of private investment was a function of infrastructure as well as incentives, he said, adding that the incentive structure was more or less in place.
He said the government was aware of the need to further simplify the procedures for tax compliance and the finance ministry would address these and related issues in the next Budget.
The Prime Minister regretted that he could not interact with captains of industry earlier due to “abnormal times”.
“I would have liked to interact more often with captains of industry and trade. But we are living through abnormal times. Never in the history of any government were the first 100 days characterised by the daily turmoil in Parliament. So I had to deal with many of these abnormal situations and that, naturally cut me off from meeting people from various walks of life, whose views and opinions I greatly cherish”, he said.
Underlining the need for maintaining fiscal discipline and to improving public finance, the Prime Minister said that the objective of increasing public investment in social and economic infrastructure could not be met unless the Central and State governments paid attention to the improved management of public finances and public enterprises.
On industrial and tariff policy reforms, the Prime Minister said that much of this was in the realm of state governments.
“Further reform of industrial and tax policies, the efficient functioning of municipalities and renewal of urban infrastructure and ending of the so-called Inspector Raj are all issues that state government must address”, he said.
