Mumbai: Hailing prime minister Narendra Modis’ Atma Nirbhar package of Rs 20 lakh crore and terming it extremely well directed to the poor who need it the most, financial wizard Vallabh Bhansali, co-founder ENAM and Desh Apnayen has said that the government must bring back business sentiment. ‘‘Now we need out of the box thinking ahead. Can we act in the manner that you have huge confidence in the economy?” he asked. Bhansali said that while the government has been very active on the political front and won the confidence of people and brought in reforms like GST by proactive thinking when it came to creating business confidence they have been behind the curve. “Right from its first term, we have seen that the government has been very conservative. Since 2008 the business climate has been damaged so massively and NPA’s cycle has got so massively extended that it will take a long time for this to change which only the govt can change.” He was in a live conversation with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now at the Visionary Talk Series held by the public policy and governance analysis platform. “Unfortunately, in our country, governments don’t like to lose. If some tax regime or provisions goes against the govt, it changes the law. The citizen is battered that there is no way his innovation can work and he must always lose. Subsidies, arbitration awards are not paid fully and therefore there is a lack of confidence. We have gone beyond ease of doing business and come to a stage where the government has to say that please do the business. A change of attitude is now needed especially when there has already been so much reform like in sectors like agriculture and education policy. We now need business sentiment policy without changing for say next three years, will bring around a churn and restore business confidence.’’ Bhansali said that with enough liquidity in the system and the RBI has done a phenomenal job of liquidity not only during COVID but also before it, the problem is the confidence of banker to release liquidity to people which will happen only when the banker is very confident. The banker has been hit by several problems like the changing norms on asset quality reviews etc. ‘‘Even now the moratoria are not creating comfort for borrowers as after the moratorium period is over the money has to come to the bank. For businesses that have been shut down or slowed down how do they pay back to the bank? The confidence of the banker on asset quality to change will take time’’ said the ace investment banker and stock market expert.
