DIPP, World Bank suggest more reforms to improve ease-of-doing business in States

Over hundred new reforms focussing on issues such as central inspection system, online land allotment system and online single window system for granting construction permits have been recommended by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in partnership with the World Bank Group for implementation by States and Union Territories in the current fiscal.

The 103 new recommendations are part of the 405 recommendations for reforms included in the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) 2017 released on Thursday. States/UTs will be evaluated and ranked on the index of Ease of Doing Business based on how they fared in executing the identified set of reforms. This year the feedback will be based on the feedback given by businesses rather than the evidence submitted by States of implementation of reforms.

“DIPP will carry out a comprehensive business-to-government feedback exercise this year whereby feedback will be taken from businesses on the quality of implementation of the reforms claimed by the States and UTs. For each State/UT, the scores will be aggregated over all the surveys conducted to yield an overall score for the State/UT,” the release said.

The feedback scores will be used to generate a ranking of States/UTs in terms of reform implementation. Such a ranking will be different from the last year’s ranking, which was a ranking of de jure reforms (or reforms based on evidence submitted by States), the release explained.

The Ease of Doing Business ranking is important for States as it gives an indication to potential investors on how investor-friendly a particular State is vis-à-vis other competing States and take a decision accordingly.

The reforms on regulatory processes, policies, practices and procedures are spread across 12 areas including labour regulation enablers, contract enforcement, registering property, inspection reform enablers, single window system, land availability and allotment, construction permit enablers, environmental registration enablers, obtaining utility permits, paying taxes, access to information and transparency enablers and sector specific reforms spanning the lifecycle of a typical business, according to an official release.

The 103 new set of reforms focus on central inspection system, online land allotment system, online single window system for granting construction permits, registration under Inter State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979, approval for boiler manufacturer and boiler erector.

BRAP 2017 also includes two new sectors — healthcare and hospitality. The last date to implement the reform is October 31 2017. The online portal shall soon be enabled to allow States/UTs to upload the reforms implemented along with the evidence.

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