The government may make a slew of announcements in the upcoming interim Budget giving a new dimension to the ongoing efforts to improve “ease of doing business” in the country. The move follows the World Bank’s plan to replace its two-decades-old “doing business” (DB) report with a new comprehensive gauge – business-ready (B-READY) – to be unveiled in the next three-four months.
According to official sources, the new steps to be unveiled would mostly be linked to delivery of government services to businesses through digital means.
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India has been almost steadily improving its ranking in the World Bank’s annual DB assessments of countries, which it discontinued in 2020 following a row over “data manipulation.” The government is keen the upward mobility is accelerated.
While taking several administrative measures to make it easier for firms to start, run and close businesses in India, the ministry of commerce and industry started ranking of Indian states on this front in 2015, with a Business Reforms Action Plan (BARP) comprising 15 parameters. The last edition of the report was released in 2022, for the year 2020.
The sources said several rounds of inter-ministerial discussions have taken place over the last few weeks on making India’s business preparedness plans compatible with the revamped World Bank criteria. The idea is to make the systems more contemporary, and globally conforming, the sources added.
The multilateral body is set to adopt a new approach for examining the business and investment climate in a country, and rank them according to a new set of parameters.
The B-READY report will rank 180 countries based on the revamped parameters. The updated approach incorporates 10 distinct indicators, such as business insolvency, business entry, labour, taxation, dispute resolution etc, for experts and company surveys to evaluate countries.
As an enhancement to the DB framework, it will analyse the alignment of legal provisions with practical implementation, assess the quality of regulations, enhance data representation, move away from broad economy-wide assessments, and evaluate the overall environment for the private sector.
Notably, the scoring system will undergo a significant transformation through the inclusion of digital government services, single windows, and information portals. B-READY will also evaluate the countries on government-provided facilities for compliance with regulations for businesses, along with efficiency of business enabling public institutions.
For instance, the report shall examine the adequate infrastructure to facilitate e-payment of incorporation fees for businesses. It will also look at e-services available in commercial dispute resolution, as well as publication of performance reports on court activities. In the earlier DB report, India climbed up to 63rd rank in 2019 from 142nd back in 2014.
The report improved India’s ranking mainly due to easing of rules in terms of starting a business, dealing with construction permits, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, getting credit, increase in electricity connectivity and resolving insolvency among others. The changes in these areas were made after the launch of Make in India policy in 2014.