Shredder for old laws, panel for new

High on liberalisation, the finance minister has proposed setting up of a Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission to clean up archaic laws and bring them in line with the requirements of the sector to project India as the next investment hub. 

This comes close on heels of the government making required moves in rewriting the indirect tax and direct tax structure where the reforms are expected to diversify the tax base and remove ambiguities besides increasing revenue. "Most of our legislations governing the financial sector are very old. Large number of amendments to these Acts made at different points of time have also increased ambiguity and complexity," finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said. 

On similar lines, UPA had set up Administrative Reforms Commission in its first term. The ARC had submitted 15 reports, of which 10 reports have been examined. Out of the 800 identified recommendations of ARC for implementation so far, 350 have been implemented and 450 are under consideration. A high-level committee on financial sector reforms headed by Raghuram Rajan had earlier submitted a report identifying emerging challenges in meeting the financing needs of Indian economy in coming decade. It had looked into the monetary and fiscal policy, and operation of legal and educational system that could help the financial sector function more effectively. 

Times of India, New Delhi, 27-02-2010