Working to decriminalise offences under Companies Act: PM

Speaking at an Assocham event, PM said the recent cut in corporate tax has brought rates to an all-time low for businesses.

New Delhi: Hard selling his administration's pro-business approach, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the government is working to decriminalise provision of Companies Act to make it easier to do business in the country.

Speaking at an Assocham event, he said the recent cut in corporate tax has brought rates to an all-time low for businesses.

He, however, said labour force should also be taken care of.

Modi said the time taken to register companies has been cut to a few hours from months and better infrastructure has enabled the cut in turnaround time at airports and ports.

Dynamic changes have been made in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the suggestion of trade and industry, he said adding India is among the top 10 nations which have in last three years made the maximum improvement in ease of doing business ranking.

From 142 rank, India has climbed to 63rd position in three years, he said.

Modi said many provisions of the Companies Act have been decriminalised and work is on to bring in more provisions.

"I am fully aware of the discussions happening around (current economic slowdown). I don't challenge comments made on it. I try to take away positives from such discourse," he said.

He went on to add that economic growth had fallen to 3.5 per cent in one of the quarters during the previous Congress-led UPA regime with headline consumer price inflation hovering at 9.4 per cent, core inflation at 7.3 per cent and wholesale inflation at 5.2 per cent while the fiscal deficit had widened to 5.6 per cent of the GDP.