Set things right: Narayana Murthy to govt

Expressing hope that new Finance Minister P Chidambaram will "set right" things at the earliest, business leader NR Narayana Murthy today said the government and the opposition should declare that they would never do anything on "retrospective basis".

"...say that we will never do anything on retrospective basis, both the ruling party and the Leader of Opposition must say this, because who knows, some other time if some other government comes and says, we will do something on retrospective basis. Therefore all our political masters will have to agree on the same thing," Murthy said.

Murthy, who is also Infosys co-founder and Chairman Emeritus, apparently had in mind the raging controversy over the retrospective amendment provisions in the tax laws in this year's budget and the adverse effect they had on investor sentiments.

He said the first requirement for doing business between two entities is trust and nothing that reduces trust should be done.

Now when the Supreme Court has actually passed a certain decision and for us to actually go back and say that we will go back and change the law on retrospective basis, is actually like taking a pistol and shooting ourselves and that doesn't

make sense," he said in an apparent reference to the Vodafone tax case.

Murthy said he hoped Chidambaram, who is known to take some quick decisions, will "set this right as early as possible".

"I have a lot of respect for Chidambaram and a lot of instances where he has taken quick decisions. Therefore, I don't want to advise him but request him to set this right as early as possible," he said.

Disappointed with government's slow pace of decision making, Murthy said India's growth potential has been affected by the inaction and lack of urgency by its bureaucrats.

"I keep meeting lots of corporate leaders outside India... About 6 or 7 years ago, if China was mentioned three times, India would be mentioned once. Today, China is mentioned 30 times, India is not mentioned even once. That in some sense

... contd.

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