Investigative Agencies’ Over-Enthusiasm Hurting Investment Pickup, P Chidambaram Says
Investigating agencies are on the prowl to catch people and put them behind bars, says Chidambaram.
Indian intelligence agencies are trying to outdo each other unearthing scams, said former Finance Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram. This over-enthusiasm to unearth ‘scams’ is in turn harming the investment environment, he added.
“There is no faith that an investor will be treated fairly in this country”, said Chidambaram who was speaking at the Harvard U.S.-India Initiative in Delhi on Saturday.
Piling bad loans prompted lenders to turn cautious, further hindering the investment cycle and the government, he said, has chosen to live in denial. Declining investments and slower growth rate means there aren’t enough jobs which is leading to social crisis, he added. His comments come a day after the Central Statistical Organisation pegged GDP growth at 6.5 percent for current fiscal, a drop from the 7.1 percent registered last year.
His advice for his successor, Arun Jaitley who will present his fourth Union Budget on February 1 is to focus on sectors that create jobs like manufacturing and small and medium enterprises.