Corp Affairs Min pitches for impact assessment of regulators

Concerned over multiplicity of regulators hampering ease of doing business in the country, Corporate Affairs Ministry has suggested an impact assessment of the work being done by various regulatory authorities.

Taking forward the suggestions made by an expert panel headed by former Sebi Chairman M Damodaran in this regard, the Ministry has written to the Prime Minister so that further actions can be taken on this front, Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot said.

"The Damodaran committee report has made some important points. One is that there are so many regulators in the country. After a decade or two, let's also have an impact assessment on how good or bad it has been. We must take a step back and see what has been the impact of a regulator," Pilot told PTI in an interview.

"We have, in this country, too many committees, commissions and regulators. Sometimes in trying to be fair and even-handed, I think, it ends up with a collateral issue of creating cumbersome processes in way of ease of doing business," he said.

The committee was set up by the government in 2012 after India was ranked very low at 132nd position in a World Bank list of 183 countries.

In its report submitted in September 2013 to the Corporate Affairs Ministry, the panel suggested a string of legal, administrative and regulatory reforms to make the country a better and easier place for doing business.

"I have written to the Prime Minister and sent him a summary of the Damodaran panel report. He will direct the ministries to take whatever action needs to be taken," Pilot said.

Asked further about what kind of 'impact assessment' he is suggesting for the regulatory authorities, the Minister said it needs to look into "what kind of work regulators are doing".

"Is it sufficiently manned? Does it have enough powers? Is it required and do we need to carry on with it?," Pilot said, while listing out the issues that needs to be looked into.

In its 77-page report, the Damodaran panel had also said that "setting up a new regulatory organisation should not be a knee-jerk response to a specific situation or context".

It also observed that "plethora of laws and regulations in India has failed to keep pace with time".