India Inc feels let down by washout of winter session of Parliament, says ASSOCHAM

New Delhi [India], Dec 16 (ANI): ASSOCHAM today expressed a huge sense of disappointment over washout of the winter session of Parliament, stating the country may have to pay a big opportunity cost for failure to get the crucial legislations passed by the law makers. "Bringing Parliament to a halt has become a kind of new normal, which is not good for the Indian democracy and the worst hit is the economy and the people who need faster and quality changes or enactment of laws by the law makers. Besides, Parliament is the best and the most credible forum for quality national debates where the issues should be debated threadbare, from different perspectives. However, with halting of Parliament becoming a common practice, the country's economy ends up paying a cost," said ASSOCHAM. The chamber said, at a time when India is grappling with both the international economic challenges like hardening of the US interest rates, slowdown in several key markets and pressure on currencies of the emerging markets, the country needs path-breaking reforms cushion itself from the same. "It is true that short-term disruptions have been caused by the demonetization, but then the issue could have been debated by all the law makers in Parliament so that people would get an opportunity to hear both the points of view and possible solutions to deal with the issue of black money and corruption", the ASSOCHAM said. The chamber also said that with the enabling laws for the Goods and Services Tax not being tabled in Parliament during the winter session, the implementation of the most important tax reforms looks quite difficult from April, 2017. "It was time all the political parties considered certain issues above partisan politics and joined together for economic growth and welfare of the people," added the chamber. The industry which is grappling with several challenges and headwinds from the domestic and global sources, feels let down, said ASSOCHAM. (ANI)