Mumbai: Ajay Piramal, director of the Piramal Group, Friday said there is a mistrust between those in power and the business community due to frequent raids and searches.
“Today, somewhere I see, there is a gap, there is a mistrust between people who are in power and people who are wealth creators,” Piramal said while speaking at the World Hindu Economic Forum, a three-day conference that began in Mumbai Friday. The conference is advertised as a platform for Hindus to collaborate on developing the economy.
“Do we really need to have everything to be criminalised? If there is a charge of an offence against you, with so much information and data available, do we need to have searches, do we need to have raids, lookout notices? It doesn’t give a positive feeling to businesses,” he added.
Piramal, who spoke during the inaugural session of the conference, also expressed concern over the availability of capital and high interest rates.
‘Important to give wealth creators the respect they deserve’
Piramal’s comments come at a time when the Indian economy is going through a rough patch. The Gross Domestic Product grew by 5 per cent in the first quarter of fiscal 2019-20 — marking the slowest growth rate in six years.
Investment and consumer demand too have been sluggish with consumption plummeting to an 18-year low of 3.1 per cent from 10.6 per cent in the immediate preceding quarter.
Piramal said the high interest rates were making the Indian economy and exports uncompetitive at the global level, noting that Indian businesses pay up to 14 per cent interest on borrowing as compared to the 2-3 per cent rate in developed markets. Consumption demand is also lower because of the high interest rates, Piramal said.
“What is critical and important is that wealth creators get the respect that they deserve,” Piramal added.
Also read: Ajay Piramal plans to sell $1 billion contract pharma business