After having made considerable progress in reducing the compliance burden at the level of the Central government, the focus has now shifted to states. A study to quantify the cost of regulations on businesses at the level of states has been initiated, with a view to helping them to identify the pain points and areas that need reforms.
“After the costs of various compliance requirements are known, the states will get an insight into the reforms they need to undertake to promote ease of doing business,” a senior official said.
The survey of regulations is currently in progress and is being conducted by selected agencies, he said.
Giving an example of the kind of issues that would be covered by the exercise, the official said that if a business has to submit 50 documents to comply with a law, can the number be brought down. “The submission of documents has a cost.”
Another issue that is being looked into in the study is the cost of delays in approvals. “If an approval is delayed the production capacity has to sit idle which also adds to costs.”
To enhance ease of doing business, the centre has cut down more than 39,000 compliances and decriminalised 3,400 legal provisions. It has also repealed 1562 obsolete Acts.
Last week parliament passed Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill 2023. The bill has amended in one stroke 42 existing Acts administered by 19 ministries. Within these Acts that deal with different areas of business, 183 provisions are being amended to decriminalise offences that are minor, procedural and technical in nature.
To continue with the process of decriminalisation of minor offences the government has set up a Working Group for Decriminalisation of Legislation. Industry associations and chambers, legal professionals and experts, and representatives of seven ministries will be a part of this working group.
The centre has also announced that it will handhold states to carry out an exercise similar to Jan Vishwas Bill at their end.
This exercise would be made part of the Business Reform Action plan and would help states in their ease of doing business ranking, an official had said last week.