Government of India, in its efforts to improve the business climate of the country and also improve country’s ranking in the World Bank report on Doing Business, held a meeting on 19 December, 2016 under the chairmanship of Hon’ble Finance Minister. In the meeting, secretary, DIPP informed that Nodal Departments have been identified for each indicator who will lead the reform process ensuring country’s improvement in ranking across the 10 indicators. Departments gave a brief overview of the reforms undertaken recently and agreed to implement the suggested reforms by January, 2017. It was further agreed that the Departments will hold intensive stakeholder consultation to get their feedback on the reforms undertaken and also engage with the respondents to ensure that the reforms are felt at the ground level. In this regard, each Department shall review the progress every week for carrying out the necessary reforms. Some of the main decision taken during the meeting were -

1. eBiz portal shall be mandated for starting a business which shall include three functions of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Registration for PAN and TAN and also registration for EPFO & ESIC.

2. Ministry of Corporate Affairs, CBDT, Ministry of Labour & Employment will work towards reducing the number of procedures for starting a business to 4 and the number of days to start a business also to 4.

3. Shram Suvidha Portal shall be the only portal for filing the return, challan and making online payment for EPFO & ESIC.

4. Department of Revenue and Ministry of Shipping shall work towards increasing the number of direct delivery consignments to 40 percent by end of this month. The Departments shall also ensure that the cost and time to export and import gets reduced substantially to bring India within top 50 ranks.

5. Ministry of Corporate Affairs shall work with the concerned stakeholders so that the provisions as recently enabled under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code are implemented through NCLT.

6. To further improve country’s ranking in the indicator of ‘Getting Credit’, Department of Financial Services and Ministry of Corporate Affairs shall work towards integrating CERSAI database with ROC Registry of Charges to create a single registry of assets.

7. In the indicator of Enforcing Contracts, Hon’ble Commerce and Industry Minister mentioned that country ranks poorly at 172 on this indicator and efforts need to be taken on many reforms to bring the country among the top 50 nations. She also mentioned that initiative of eCourts should be expedited for electronic filing of complaints, summons and payments especially in the Commercial Courts.

8. On ‘Construction Permit’, Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development mentioned that the procedures shall be brought down to 8 within 60 days. However Hon’ble Finance Minister desired that Department should explore the possibility of commencing the construction on architect’s certification and approval granted only at the time of the occupancy of the building.

The next review of the progress made on reforms shall be done in the end of January to ensure their implementation.

The meeting was attended by Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Minister of Urban Development; Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Law and Justice; Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy and Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State (Finance) as well. Secretaries of Departments also participated in the meeting including DEA, DIPP, MCA, Justice, MoUD, Civil Aviation, DoR, D/o Land Resources, CBEC Chairperson & Chief Secretary of NCT of Delhi and top officials of Govt of Maharashtra.

Ease of Doing Business reforms to mandate eBiz portal and streamline registrations, reducing procedures and enabling online compliance. A coordinated reform program mandates a digital single-window eBiz portal for company, tax and labour registrations, weekly departmental progress reviews, and stakeholder consultations; specifies operational measures including consolidation of EPFO/ESIC filings on Shram Suvidha Portal, reduction of procedures and days to start a business, integration of CERSAI with the ROC Registry of Charges to create a single asset registry, implementation of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code provisions through NCLT, expediting eCourts, and streamlining construction permit processes, with an end-of-January review.