The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion has requested Ministries/Departments as well as the State Governments and UTs to set up Investor Facilitation Centres to help channelize investments into the country.  

No Investor Facilitation Cell has been set up under Invest India in the States. However, several States have set up their own one-stop facilitation centres to extend assistance and provide guidelines and cooperation to the investors.

In pursuance of an Action Plan agreed at the National Workshop on ‘Make in India’ held in December 2014, States/UTs have embarked upon a series of business reforms  with a view to improving efficiency and effectiveness of various government regulatory functions and services for businesses in India.  Some of the important measures taken by the States are indicated in the statement at Annexure.

This information was given by the Minister of State(Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

ANNEXURE

Initiatives on Improving ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in India

The Government of India has taken up a series of measures to improve Ease of Doing Business. The emphasis has been on simplification and rationalization of the existing rules and introduction of information technology to make governance more efficient and effective. The measures taken are:

1.      Process of applying for Industrial License (IL) and Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandum (IEM) has been made online and this service is now available to entrepreneurs on 24x7 basis at the eBiz website. This had led to ease of filing applications and online payment of service charges.  

2.      20 services are integrated with the eBiz portal which will function as a single window portal for obtaining clearances from various governments and government agencies.  These services are given in Appendix.  

3.       Notification has been issued on 12-03-2015 by DGFT to limit number of documents required for export and import to three.  

4.      Ministry of Corporate Affairs has introduced an integrated process of incorporation of a company, wherein applicants can apply for Director’s Identification Number (DIN) and company name availability simultaneous to incorporation application [Form INC-29]. 

5.      The Companies (Amendment) Act, 2015 has been passed to remove requirements of minimum paid-up capital and common seal for companies. It also simplifies a number of other regulatory requirements. 

6.       A comparative study of practices followed by the States for grant of clearance and ensuring compliances was conducted through M/s Accenture Services (P) Ltd. and six best practices were identified. These were circulated among all the states for peer evaluation and adoption. The study has also identified important bottlenecks faced by industries and important steps required to improve the business environment in States.  

7.      Application forms for Industrial Licence (IL) and Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandum (IEM) have been simplified.  

8.      Vide Press Note 3 (2014), Defence products’ list for industrial licensing has been issued, wherein large number of parts/components, castings/forgings etc. have been excluded from the purview of industrial licensing. Similarly dual use items, having military as well as civilian application (unless classified as defence item) will also not require Industrial License from defence angle. For these items only an Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandum (IEM) has to be filed.  

9.      Vide Press Note 5 (2014), initial validity period of Industrial License has been increased to three years from two years. This will give enough time to licensees to procure land and obtain the necessary clearances/approvals from authorities.  

10.  MHA has stipulated that it will grant security clearance on Industrial Licence Applications within 12 weeks. In matters other than Explosives and FIPB cases, security clearances are valid for three years unless there is a change in composition of management or shareholding.  

11.  Partial commencement of production is being treated as commencement of production of all the items included in the license. This has obviated the hardship of licensees to get their Industrial License extended even though they have started production.  

12.  To facilitate investors and to reply to their queries, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) by applicants for grant of industrial license have been developed and uploaded on DIPP website.  

13.  Vide Press Note 4 (2014), the NIC Code NIC 2008 has been adopted, which is the advanced version of industrial classification. This code will allow Indian businesses to be part of globally recognized and accepted classification that facilitate smooth approvals/registration.  

14.  Vide Press Note 6 (2014), the ‘Security Manual for Licensed Defence Industry’ has been issued. This has obviated the requirement of affidavit from applicants. Earlier, an affidavit signed before Judicial Magistrate was required from the applicant to confirm that they will comply with the safety & security guidelines/procedures laid down by the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Home Affairs in Government of India. The applicants were facing difficulties in obtaining such affidavit and this was severely delaying the issue of License even after approval of Licensing Committee.  

15.  A checklist with specific time-lines has been developed for processing all applications filed by foreign investors in cases relating to Retail/NRI/EoU foreign investments. This has been placed on the DIPP website.  

16.  An Investor Facilitation Cell has been created in ‘Invest India’ to guide, assist and handhold investors during the entire life-cycle of the business.  

17.  SEZ Units allowed removing goods for repair, replacement, testing, calibration, quality testing and research and development on self-attestation.  

18.  Process of applying for Environment and Forests clearances has been made online through Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change’s portals http://environmentclearance.nic.in/ and http://forestsclearance.nic.in/ . 

19.  Requirement for Environment Assessment Report is required for industrial shed, school, college, hostel for education institution above 20,000 square meters of build-up area up to 150,000 square meters of build-up area.  

20.  The issue of time taken in registration with Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) and Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) was taken up with the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Director General, ESIC and Central Provident Fund Commissioner. Both the processes have been automated and ESIC registration number is being provided on a real-time basis.  

21.  An order facilitating revival and rehabilitation of MSMEs through banker’s committee has been issued by Ministry of MSME.  

22.  A unified portal for registration of Units for LIN, reporting of inspection, submission of returns and grievance redressal has been launched by Ministry of Labour and Employment.  

23.  DIPP has requested all Secretaries of Government of India and Chief Secretaries of the States/UTs to simplify and rationalize the regulatory environment. In order to improve the regulatory business environment they have been requested to take the following measures on priority: a) All returns should be filed on-line through a unified form; b) A check-list of required compliances should be placed on Department’s web portal; c) All registers required to be maintained by the business should be replaced with a single electronic register; d) No inspection should be undertaken without the approval of the Head of the Department; and e) For all non-risk, non-hazardous businesses a system of self-certification should be introduced.  

24.  Registration process of VAT and Professional tax has been merged into a single process with single ID on 1st January, 2015 by the Government of Maharashtra.  

25.  Registration for VAT in Delhi has been made online. TIN allotment is done real-time and business can start immediately on receipt of TIN number.  

26.  The time required for giving a new electric connection in Mumbai has been reduced to 21 days from 67 days. The number of procedures  involved has been cut down to 3 from existing 7.  

27.  Simplified procedure for new electric connection in Delhi with reduced procedures and time.  

28.  Municipal Corporation of Delhi has launched online application process for grant of construction permits for residential and industrial buildings on 16th March, 2015 and commercial buildings in May, 2015.

Appendix