The state government has decided to bring more departments and sectors of economy under the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) regime for attracting investments in the state.
The focused sectors are agriculture, geology, mining and real estate, while the other departments to be brought under EODB regime include energy, housing and urban development, labour, weights and measurement, public works, revenue, stamps and registration, fire services, food security and drug administration, industrial development authorities, pollution control board and Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA).
For further improving the investment climate in the state, the government has decided to include district-level offices of different departments, including office of the district magistrate, better known as Collectorate, under EODB regime.
The main areas of assessment of EODB include paper-less courts/offices, on-line tax payment, single window system, labour law reforms, obtaining a power and water connection, environmental clearances, issuance and renewal of various business licences, digitisation of records, setting up of special courts for commercial disputes, among other things.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) had begun the EODB ranking of states in 2015 as a part of its Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) to promote competitiveness among states.
Uttar Pradesh, however, wants the DIPP to introduce a grading system, replacing the existing ranking system.
In 2017-18, UP’s ranking had improved to 12 among all states, with Andhra Pradesh emerging on top.
In the current fiscal 2018-19, the DIPP under BRAP, the Centre has made 203 recommendations to the state and provided a list of 525 works to be included in EODB. The focus is on shifting to on-line service by different departments, who give permissions/approvals and sanctions to industry and business enterprises.
Currently, there are 372 parameters for reforms on 58 regulatory processes, policies and practices spanning 10 reform areas viz. access to information and transparency enablers; single window; environmental registration enablers; obtaining power connection; availability of land; construction permit enablers; inspection reform enablers; labour regulation enablers; on-line tax and return filing and commercial dispute resolution enablers spanning the life cycle of a typical business. The respective states/Union Territories have to submit evidence of implemented reforms with the Central website.
“We have done a lot of things to improve services and relax regulations and hope the state to fare very well on the ease of doing business index to be released by the Centre’s DIPP after the end of current fiscal,” said an Industry department official.
He said that self-certification by industries with provision of inspection only once a year, random inspection of 20 per cent establishments selected through a software, two-year exemption from inspection to start-ups, were some of the new provisions that would help create better business climate in the state.
Aiming to provide prompt redressal to commercial disputes, the Yogi Adityanath government in October last year announced to set up commercial courts in 13 divisional headquarters after amending the relevant laws. Many states like Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Telangana have commercial courts.
The Commercial Appellate Division of the High Court Act, 2015 allows states to set up separate commercial courts. These could be set up at district headquarters and are empowered to settle disputes of a value of at least Rs 1 crore and above.