Ease of doing: Govt weighs making PAN a unique ID for cos

Government is working on a proposal to make PAN a unique identity for business entities with a view to improving ease of doing business and ensuring a company is incorporated in a day using an integrated e-biz portal.
"We are working towards making PAN a unique ID for any business entity that is recognised by all departments... This would facilitate incorporation of a new company in a single day through an integrated e-biz portal and this is going to be soon a reality," Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha said today.
He was speaking at a session on 'Ease of Doing: The Next Steps' organised by CII.

Asserting that the government is committed to making things easy for doing business, Sinha said it means not only minimising or quickening the industry's interface with the government and its agencies, but unveiling policy measures to create more business opportunities and an environment that makes investments less risky and more attractive.
Sinha also said dedicated commercial courts have been set up for disposal of commercial disputes and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy law is in the pipeline.
According to the World Bank's Doing Business report, India's rank improved to 130 in 2016, from the earlier 142, out of 189 economies.

"However, we must remember that the report evaluates only Delhi and Mumbai and does not capture the good work that many of the states are doing. Besides, the policy and process reforms that are being introduced in Delhi and Mumbai in order to improve our ranking needs to be replicated in other states and cities also," he emphasised.

The Cabinet Secretary highlighted several challenges faced by the government in 2014-15 in sectors such as road, power and coal.
"One by one as a result of the policy interventions made, these issues have been resolved and projects are back on track. Path-breaking reforms have been launched in the infrastructure and transport sector particularly," he said.
"Whether it is NELP in the oil sector, new tariff policy in power, hybrid annuity model in the road sector or the ship-building subsidy, all these will pave the way for renewed private sector participation in development."
He pointed to several steps being taken to make things simple to do business.

These processes are not only being made online, but
decentralised and delegated to field agencies, Sinha said, citing the recent environment and forest clearances that have got a number of stalled projects moving.
He said a single window interface for facilitating trade has been launched by the Customs department on April 1.
This provides for one integrated declaration representing nine separate forms of six different agencies, besides the provision that trade consignments will be examined on the principle of risk management, which means not all items are to be examined.
"A single window will help reduce time and transaction cost, thereby making our goods more competitive," he said.