Small businesses need an equally liberalised system to flourish: Montek

Small businesses need an equally liberalised system as bigger companies get to flourish, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission said in New Delhi on Wednesday. 
 

At a SKOCH book-launch event, he said, “I don't believe there is anyone who thinks that we need less liberalisation for small businesses...But the suspicion really is that the agenda should not be high jacked by big businesses and that's why we are concerned about crony capitalism.”
 

However, he said it is not an India specific development, this is being done across the world and there are areas where corrective actions need to be taken. 
 

"We have to recognise that when issues of social legitimacy arise, it is very important for the corporate sector also to ask questions that what it is that is undermining the social legitimacy of the system,” he added.
 

"I think one of the issues one has to raise is if indeed the country perceives that corruption is a big problem, which indeed is...Yet the public atmosphere is one that it is purely the governance failure," Ahluwalia further said. 
 

Talking about areas where corrective actions are needed, he said role of the government should be clear and should be more in the areas of social and infrastructure development. 
 

Moreover, government has the responsibility to ensure overall environment of macro stability as rapid growth cannot happen without it, he said. 
 

Ahluwalia also said the economic reforms process has introduced much greater competition in a very large number of areas which didn't existed before. 
 

Also, in terms of allocating resources, "Government clearly said that in future, all allocation should be done through auction basis." 
 

He said there are concerns that market can be manipulated, but those who feel that markets are not fair should use the instrumentalities of institutions such as Competition Commission (CCI). 
 

"Institutions like the Competition Commission...Taken some very tough actions to discipline the larger players by imposing very heavy penalty. Those who feel markets are not fair should use these instrumentalities." 
 

Further, he said there are issues of poor internal corporate governance and most of the corporations still remain family controlled.