Prime Minister Narendra Modi has faced a couple of tough questions from a top official of the Saudi-India business council yesterday. PM has invited the Saudi businesses to come and make investments in the country’s defence, energy, railway, health, and agricultural sectors.
Kamel S AI Munajjad, the co-chair person of Saudi Arabia-India business council, told Modi, “You are preaching to the converted, but even the converted have occasional concerns. Whereas the doors of our ministers in Saudi Arabia are always wide open, and are accessible to foreign investors, bureaucratic requirements make it more difficult in India. We need your help for an equal opportunity to do so in India.”
After the statement, he fired seven questions, which were kind of tough. He said, there are “lot of questions” come to mind and “I hope you can answer them”.
“Why a parliamentary gridlock on a major reform like GST in India? What’s happening to your land reform law, your bankruptcy law? Why does your government promise a tax-friendly government to investors… and at the same time, your tax department takes steps in the opposite direction?”
“Why are you inviting foreign investors in infrastructure projects when we are not seeing Indian government and companies invest aggressively in this sector? How solid, how strong is your banking sector? India is home to the second largest Muslim community in the world, are you considering opening your markets to the principles of Islamic banking? Will you allow Saudi banks to operate in India, bearing in mind that SBI is already here,” he said.
The questions were shot in front of the National Security Advisor Ajit K Doval, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and Secretary (Economic Relations) Amar Sinha. Moreover, the Indian business heads including Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry and L&T Group executive chairman A M Naik were also there in the room.
In response, Modi said he is “not able to do anything” on the two pending cases as “they are sub-judice”. The PM told that the retrospective taxation has been relegated to history. “There are two cases of the previous government, but they are sub-judice matter, so I am not able to do anything… Now, retrospective tax in India has become a thing of the past. It will not happen going ahead,” said Modi.
“You are worried about GST. Do not worry about GST. GST will happen. I cannot give a timeframe, but it will happen. It was our commitment, and it is about to happen,” he added further.
Any of the backward amendments to the tax laws is a gone thing. The government wants a “long-term”, stable and “predictable” policies.
“My government is working towards banking sector reform and making sure all our states are on board,” he said. “Let us move beyond merely the export-import relationship. Joint investment, technology transfers are areas we should explore.”
“World Bank has upgraded India by 12 ranks in Ease of Doing Business. I expect in the next review, our ranking will improve further because we have made a lot of administrative reforms. From petroleum to renewable energy, infrastructure, defence and agriculture, there is a tremendous opportunity for expanding our cooperation,” he said. “India and Saudi Arabia are old friends, but we are ready to take bold, new steps into a golden future.” AI Munajjad, as soon as the meeting finished, clicked a selfie with PM.
