Cab Secy meets senior officials on improving ease of doing biz

Several specific issues related to improving ease of doing business in India such as enforcement of contracts and registration of properties were discussed at a high level meeting called by Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth.
The meeting, held yesterday, was attended by senior officials of different departments including commerce, DIPP and finance. It aimed at firming up steps to improve ease of doing business in the country.
"Ten major issues where India can work to improve the rankings were discussed at the meeting," an official said.
The issues that came up for discussion included finding ways to speed up processes related to enforcement of contracts, registration of properties, getting construction permit, power connection, paying taxes and resolve insolvency issues, the official added.

The meeting assumes significance as the government has set a goal of brining India within the top 50 rank globally in terms of ease of doing business. India has been ranked 142 among the 189 countries in the latest World Bank report.
The government has already taken many steps in this direction including issuance of checklist with specific timelines for processing applications filed by foreign investors and launch of single registration -- Labour Identification Number -- for labour related compliances.

Among others, a large number of parts/components have been excluded from industrial licensing, application for environment and forest clearances made online.

The Commerce Ministry is separately engaged with different departments, including revenue and shipping, to reduce paper- work in a bid to cut transaction cost for exporters and improve ease of doing business.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the Commerce Ministry, aims at reducing the number of mandatory documents from seven to three (bill of lading, invoice and shipping bill) for exports, and from ten to three for imports by March 31.
The DGFT has recently permitted online submission of documents to take Import-Export Code for traders.