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New Delhi : The Government of India, in its efforts to improve the business climate of the country and also improve country’s 0ranking in the World Bank’s report on Ease of Doing Business, held a meeting on December 19 under the chairmanship of union finance minister Arun Jaitley.
The meeting was also attended by M Venkaiah Naidu, Minister for Urban Development; Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Law and Justice; Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister for Commerce & Industry; Piyush Goyal, Minister for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy and Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State (Finance). Secretaries of various Departments of Central Government also participated at the meeting.
Secretary, DIPP, informed that Nodal Departments have been identified for each indicator who will lead the reform process ensuring country’s improvement in ranking across the 10 indicators. The departments gave a brief overview of the reforms undertaken recently and agreed to implement the suggested reforms by January, 2017. It was further agreed that the departments will hold intensive stakeholder consultation to get their feedback on the reforms undertaken and also engage with the respondents to ensure that the reforms are felt on the ground. In this regard, each dpartment shall review the progress every week for carrying out the necessary reforms.
The eBiz portal shall be mandated for starting a business which shall include three services of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Registration for PAN and TAN and also for EPFO & ESIC. Ministry of Corporate Affairs, CBDT, Ministry of Labour & Employment will work towards reducing the number of procedures for starting a business to 4 and the number of days to start a business also to 4. Shram Suvidha Portal shall be the only portal for filing returns, challan and making online payment for EPFO & ESIC contributions as well as other filings and payments. The department of Revenue and Ministry for Shipping shall work towards increasing the number of direct delivery consignments to 40 % by end of this month. These were among the major decisions taken at the meeting,a ccording to a PIB release.
On ‘Construction Permit’, Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, mentioned that the procedures shall be brought down to 8 which will be completed within 60 days. However, the Finance Minister desired that the department should explore the possibility of commencing the construction on architect’s certification and approval being granted only at the time of the occupancy of the building.