Current business environment promotes corruption, says Kejriwal

Three days after resigning as chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal gave a sneak peek into the economic agenda of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at industry body CII's National Council Meeting held in New Delhi on Monday. Almost three hours after Finance Minister P. Chidambaram presented the last Budget of the UPA 2 government, Kejriwal interacted with the senior leaders of the Indian industry.

The UPA government has the best economists in the world but most are not happy with the current state of the economy or business environment. "In the past 10 years, you may find the UPA government bringing the best economics but they lack in honest politics. Our economic policy is honest politics," he said. Our system is created in a way that even a small income tax inspector can daunt big industrialists, Kejriwal stressed. "Every businessman is seen as a thief. I think 99 per cent of people want to do business honestly. The current environment promotes corruption. This has to change." 

Talking about the growing perception of AAP being anti-capitalist, Kejriwal said that he is not against business. "We are against crony capitalism. There is a small section of industrialists in our country who are actually looting the country. We are against them."

Citing an example of transporters who have to bear 23 per cent extra "corruption" costs while ferrying goods from Mumbai to Delhi, he said that corruption makes our products less competitive globally. "If corruption goes down, the cost of doing business will come down tremendously. Our products will become much better in the international markets."

While briefly touching upon key issues such as taxation and ease of doing business, Kejriwal said that India needs a stable tax regime and simple laws. "Indians do so well in other countries. But when it comes to starting a business in our own country, the government does everything to make your life miserable. We are first-class citizens who are getting the third-class governance," he said.

He said that for the past five years, there was a demand to audit the books of power distribution companies in Delhi. "We ordered audit within five days. We said that once the audit report comes out, the prices should be fixed on its findings. We agree that when government was giving power, it was full of corruption. But after privatisation, the government should have regulated properly," he said, adding that there are two companies in Delhi. "One company has no problem, only the other one has a problem. There has to be something wrong."

Kejriwal also found opportunities to showcase the work AAP had done in its 48-day stint in power in Delhi. "When we came to power, traders in Delhi were vexed with VAT. It was such a complicated system. We abolished many VAT-related forms which has given relief to traders in Delhi."