Assam assembly passes Bill to clear industrial applications without delay

The Assam assembly on Wednesday

passed a Bill which seeks to speed up the process of clearing proposals for setting up new industries and renewing applications of existing ones in the state.

The House unanimously passed The Assam Ease of Doing Business (Amendment) Bill, 2020 after a discussion, in which Commerce and Industry Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said that the new legislation will simplify procedures and bring transparency and efficiency in the system.

"The government is committed to creating an investor- friendly atmosphere in the state. Many steps have been taken in the past few years to promote investment and make Assam an investor-friendly destination," he said.

Patowary said that a large number of renewal applications are pending at different levels, causing "unreasonable delay", and so the government has decided to do away with all types of renewal certificates, licenses and permissions.

"The enterprises submit all required documents for obtaining the initial license, Permission etc. As such, there is no need to submit the documents once again... However, the units will be required to deposit the required fee for renewal," he added.

The Bill proposed that a computerised central random inspection system will be implemented in which allocation of inspectors will be done centrally at random by the competent authorities and the same inspector will not be assigned to the same unit in the subsequent year.

"Prior notice will be provided to the business owner and the inspection report will be uploaded on the web portal within 48 hours of inspection," Patowary said.

The minister said that amendments to The Assam Ease of Doing Business Act, 2016 will enable the state government to avail 0.25 per cent additional borrowing from the Centre.

On Wednesday, which is the last day of the Winter Session, the assembly also unanimously passed The Assam Education (Provincialisation of Services of Non-Teaching Staff of Venture Educational Institutions) (Amendment) Bill, 2020.