Muristek
No one is above law, wrongdoers will be punished, Piyush Goyal says on industry raids
Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, March 24
A day after Income Tax sleuths raided premises linked to Hero MotoCorp chairman Pawan Munjal, the government on Thursday said in Lok Sabha that no one was above the law and wrongdoers will be punished.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, replying to the debate on the budget for the ministry, said "you cannot steal and then brazen it out."
He was responding to specific remarks by an opposition MP who suggested that raids were dampening industrial investment sentiment.
"One MP here said that many raids were happening in the country because of which industrial investment had dampened. I was pretty surprised by these remarks. Frankly, I could not understand the link between raids and investment. If someone steals, he cannot brazen it out."
Goyal went on to add that the attitude that someone is highly placed would not help if someone commits a wrong.
"This attitude that I am a politician, an industrialist, and so there will be no action.... Is there any such law in the country that you will not be prosecuted if you are a politician or a bizman and have committed a wrong? The one who commits a wrong will be punished," Goyal said amid applause by Treasury benches.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi commands popular respect of people because of this confidence that corruption will be punished irrespective of the status of the wrong doers.
Goyal meanwhile also lauded the Indian industry for always rising to the occasion, hailing the increase in export value and volume across sectors.
Indian exports crossed the US$ 400 billion dollar mark for the first time yesterday, with the PM hailing the day as a milestone.
Goyal hailed farmers today for 50 billion dollar worth of agriculture exports and said India was on course to hit 150 to 200 lakh ton wheat export target next year with 70 lakh ton already reached this year.
"For the first time we have crossed the 30 lakh crore export figure until March 21. This is merchandise export. The services export figure is awaited...picture abhi baaki hai," Goyal said listing structural reforms being initiated to "make India a golden sparrow, a world leader again."
Goyal said India was talking to countries for zero duty access as available to Bangladesh on account of its less developed nation status.
The minister also informed LS that 400 layers of data had been readied under the PM Gati Shakti Plan to ensure minimum loss of time and efficiency in infra development.
These layers of data include information on wildlife sanctuaries, forest covers, rivers along planned highway stretches, details of eco sensitive zones etc which would help developers plan infra projects better.
The minister hailed the Indian Startup ecosystem currently placed number three in the world and said
95 pc patent and trademark applications in India were now online as against 25 pc eight years ago.
"Between 1940 and 2015 we had 11 lakh trademark registrations and in the last five years we had 14 lakh. This is due to relaxations to the patent sector," the minister said.
He said patents granted had risen from 4227 in 2013-14 to 28390 in 2020-21, a seven fold rise.
Nearly 33 MPs from 14 states took part in the debate with the Minister saying that India was the best investment destination in the world as of today -- a far cry from 2013 when, he said, the Indian industry and economy was heavily flailing.
Goyal said PM's vision was to undertake long term structural reform to improve Indian industry's quality and productivity rather than short term subsidy based outlook.
"PM's dictum is short term gain is long term pain," said Goyal.