Odisha to have third party appraisal to ease business climate

State eyes place among top three states in terms of ease of doing business

Attempting to improve its ranking in 'Ease of Doing Business' and be among the top three states, Odisha plans to have a third party evaluation in April for ground level monitoring of various measures and reforms implemented to ease business procedures.

"Whether the steps taken by us in the 'Ease of Doing Business' are reaching to the industries or not, an assessment would be undertaken by a third party agency. For identifying the agency, we will float a tender", said Sanjeev Chopra, state industries secretary.

The state government has significantly cut down on time taken on major services like allotment of land, registration of business, environment approvals, registration under various labour acts and electricity connections. Odisha has operationalised a unique, first-of-its-kind Central Inspection Framework to synchronise the inspections by various departments in a pre-planned manner.

In case of green category industries, final project approval will be accorded within 15 days and for the non-green categories the approval will given with in 30 days. Similarly, 42 services concerning industrial approvals have been included under Right to Public Services Act.

The timeline for registration of a new business has been curtailed from seven days earlier to 1-3 days now. The time taken for allotment of land by the government has been reduced from 65 days to 30 days.

For power connectivity, low tension (LT) and high tension (HT) electricity connection will be provided to industries within 15 days and 30 days from application respectively. The energy department will give a fixed cost estimate for a new connection -- Rs 6,000 per KVA if infrastructure is available and Rs 11,300 per KVA in case of non availability.

The pollution control certificate will not be a pre-requisite for a new electricity connection.

There will also be a provision to temporarily allocate water for a duration of six months to enable construction.

For doing the business easily, a voluntary compliance scheme is designed to enable entrepreneurs for self-check and compliance, with minimum inspections - covers 18 different labour laws. The industries covered under this scheme will be inspected once in three years - exemption from inspection under various labour laws. Also, an entrepreneur can choose to quit the scheme any time by giving prior notice.

The state government has launched the e-biz portal to provide a one-stop platform for all investment and business related services. This obviates the need for physical interface with various offices.

The portal provides for inter-departmental coordination in data sharing verification and service delivery. Presently, 14 major services- project evaluation, land allotment, shed allotment in industrial estate, approval of plan and issue of license under Factories Act, registration under Boilers Act, registration of establishments employing contract labour, registration under Shops and Establishment Act, power connection, consent to establish and operate under Water and Air Acts, registration under VAT (value added tax), permission for site & building, occupancy certificate, permission to draw water for industrial use and been integrated with e-biz portal.