Govt plans decriminalisation law in winter session of Parliament

The Central government will introduce a holistic decriminalisation law in the upcoming winter session of the Parliament, Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles has said. The new law will give a significant leg-up to ease of doing business, he added.

Addressing the 117th Annual Session of the PHD Chamber of Commerce inNew Delhi on September 30, the minister said that decriminalising sections of various laws will end the harassment faced by businesses and reduce compliance burden.  

Goyal spoke of the large number of reforms and transformative steps taken in the last few years and said the government pursued a broad based and consensus based development model across sectors and businesses. He also sought industry inputs that can be included in the proposed bill.

On the government’s approach towards free trade agreements (FTAs), Goyal said that the government was striving to get more market access to developed nations for the Indian products and services through FTAs. India-Canada FTA negotiations are ongoing, he said.

According to him, India’s engagements with developed  nations which are high-income, high-consumption countries will help maximise Indian exports which will in turn lead to more employment generation in the country. He said that the government is ensuring that FTAs are fair, balanced and equitable for both parties involved. He urged industry to abandon its protectionist mindset and said that our negotiations are with nations that have rule-based systems and transparent processes.

Goyal dwelled on the challenges that the world faced, from the pandemic to regional conflicts to economic recession and inflation and said that amidst all this turmoil, India has been a shining star. 

The Minister said that India continues to be one of the fastest growing economies and successfully continues to rein-in inflation compared to the rest of the world. He observed that while double digit inflation as normal earlier, today the country is able to contain inflation at around 7 percent. He also noted that India has been ranked 40th in the Global Innovation Index (GII) by World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and said that this was the result of path-breaking reforms undertaken by the government.