Asserting that government is committed to economic reforms, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said it is now time for taking some hard decisions and expressed confidence that three key legislations on pension, banking and insurance will be passed in 2012.
Speaking at a Washington-based think-tank, he, however, acknowledged that there were pressures of coalition democracy and that some reform measures had slowed down over 2011.
Rejecting the perception of policy paralysis, he said the government has, in fact, initiated the process of legislative and administrative changes on a number of issues that would benefit the economy.
“We are now at a juncture when it is inevitable to take some hard decisions. And this has been our approach, as I outlined in the proposals for the Union Budget 2012-13 recently,” he said.
He was responding to questions at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, which had organised an event in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
“... Thanks to the pressures of coalition democracy, some reform measures had slowed down over the last year, but we have taken several steps in the past months to shore-up the short and medium term growth prospects,” Mr Mukherjee said.
In fact on the legislative front, Mr Mukherjee said, the government has already completed the preliminary legislative process for Pension Fund Regulatory Act, Insurance Act and Banking Amendment Act.
“These three acts, I do hope would get legislated in this calendar year,” he said.