Aage accha samay ayega

Union home minister Amit Shah, with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, commerce and railway minister Piyush Goyal and Times Group managing director Vineet Jain at the Economic Times Awards ceremony in Mumbai on Saturday

MUMBAI: Responding to concerns within business and industry about an atmosphere of fear unleashed by tax authorities, Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday said, "No one needs to fear anything", and that most of the steps the government had undertaken to clean up the system were over.," Shah told industry titans at the Economic Times Awards ceremony in Mumbai. While acknowledging the economic slowdown , Shah said he was confident the country would emerge from it and urged industry to share its concerns and suggestions with the government.Shah said the steps the Modi government had undertaken to crack down on wrongdoings in the banking and financial system were coming to a close.There were some gross wrongdoings between 2004 and 2014, and we had to take some steps to fix and restore the system. Those steps are now over," Shah reassured the audience. The home minister also said the government had undertaken a "detoxification of the economy" in the last five years and admitted that there were "some repercussions to the reforms", which needed to be tackled. However, the steps had been positive because they had created a more transparent economy, he said. On the economic slowdown, Shah said the problems could be overcome with the cooperation of industry."We should come out of the slowdown with self-confidence. The global economic slowdown is a temporary phase we need to cross. We have done so in the past. Our market of 130 crore people and industry are strong enough to emerge from it."Shah said he was confident India would become a $5 trillion economy. "We are with the industry. Share your concerns with us. The problems are not out of reach because we are proactive," he said. The BJP president also reassured the audience that despite the slowdown, the government was still on the path of reforms."India is still the fastest growing economy. Our government has done a lot to improve infrastructure and ease of business. Our niti and niyat are clean," said Shah.In response to a comment that many feared being frank with the government, Shah said, "No one needs to fear anything. A lot has been written about us. No one wants to scare anyone and there is nothing we have done that we need to worry about."