India trashes World Bank business climate report

The government today questioned the findings of a recent World Bank report on "Doing Business in 2006" which had stated that in India it took 71 days to complete 11 procedures for setting up a business.

"It appears that the report, which is based on the feedback by a few, has not taken into account the initiatives which are already in place," a commerce and industry ministry statement said.

Contesting the findings of the report in detail, the statement said the government had initiated a number of measures to simplify and speed up the process of allocation of Permanent Account Number (PAN). The report had said it took 30 days to get a PAN and 45 days to get a Tax Account Number.

"On an average, more than 5 lakh PANs were allotted every month during 2004-05. Analysis of the application received during January-June 2005 shows that in over 99 per cent of the cases, PAN cards were issued within 10 working days," it said.

Clarifying that the TAN was not a pre-requisite for starting a business, the statement said issuing of TAN had been outsourced and was being processed in less than 15 days.

The statement also said the government had started a major e-governance initiative called MCA-21, and added that once the initiative was operational, the process of request for incorporation of company filed-on-line would be completed in 2-3 days.

"Reduction of time taken in allotment of PANTAN itself means that the total time required to set up a business is less than 30-40 days. It will come down further with the completion of MCA-21," it added.