DPIIT starts exercise to rank states for ease of doing biz this year

The commerce and industry ministry has started the exercise of ranking states and union territories this year in terms of ease of doing business, and released guidelines and reform measures for them to be implemented before March 31.

Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), under the ministry, has stated that this year they propose to undertake a 100 per cent feedback based assessment on 76 reform measures under Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) 2019.

The reforms suggested by the department for states and UTs are in 12 areas and that include online single window system for approval, maintenance of land records, central inspection framework, tax enablers, labour regulations and obtaining electricity connection.

The department said that the guidelines will allow states/UTs to understand requirements for implementation of reforms and help them in identifying the measures that should be taken to achieve the objectives of the action plan.

"It will also help in understanding the evidence that needs to be submitted for each reform. The last date for implementation of reforms is 31st March, 2019," it said.

The department started this exercise, to rank all the states/UTs on the reforms undertaken by them on designated parameters, for the first time in 2014.

"The aim of this exercise is to create conducive business environment by streamlining regulatory structures and creating an investor-friendly business climate by cutting down red tape," it added.

Last year, these rankings were announced in July. Andhra Pradesh topped the chart and it was followed by Telangana and Haryana.