Unease of doing business in India Our business ecosystem has always remained prey to regulatory hurdles. In India, it requires an entrepreneur to comply with 12 procedures and wait on average 27 days only to start a business. In the eyes of foreign investors, the image is no less worse. Year after year, we are scoring poorly in the World Banks Ease of Doing Business report but even now hardly any serious thought has been given for changing the situation. Compared to this prolonged period of inaction, some recent developments seem like rapid progress, however. Last week, I discussed some newly introduced labour reform measures by the government, and now another piece of good news is that the coming days may see an upswing of business regulatory reforms. The media has reported that the new government wants to improve Indias ranking in the ease of doing business index to 50th position in the next two years. At present, India ranks 134th and in some areas we are performing even worse than countries like Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Lets have a look at how pathetic the situation is. According to the World Bank report, in India dealing with construction permits involves 35 procedures and a 168-day waiting period, getting electricity involves 7 procedures and a 67-day waiting period, registering property requires 5 procedures and a 44-day waiting period, and for resolving insolvency it requires a company to wait 4.3 years. When it comes to export, it requires on average 16 days and 9 types of document while to import it requires 11 types of document and a 20-day waiting time. Needless to say, the faster our businesses get rid of this regulatory burden the better it is. Recently, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion came out with a report on the issue. It includes some valuable suggestions, including reduction in business registration time to one day, removal of minimum paid up capital for start-ups, introduction of Bankruptcy Law and Unified Insolvency Code, reduction in number of taxes and permitting on-line payment of taxes, implementation of DTC and GST, abolition of minimum alternate tax for SEZ units, single registration for VAT and other state taxes, combined application form and single window clearance, etc. These measures are worth considering. I think the government should also try to pick up suggestions directly from the industry players from different sectors, with special focus on micro, small and medium enterprises. In addition, our industry associations should come forward with concrete and feasible suggestions to improve the business environment. At the same time, special attention should be given to simplify the loan disbursal procedure, bring down the interest rates for MSMEs and initiate a financial inclusion drive for the sector. I invite your opinions.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 10:57:07 +0000
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