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He added that compliance in matters like land, labour, dispute resolution, taxation and environment offer a vast scope for reduction to boosting competitiveness, economic growth and employment.
Here are CII’s 10 suggestions to ensure ease of doing business
1. All regulatory approvals – central, state, and local levels – must be mandatorily provided only through the National Single Window System (NSWS) to bring more transparency and speed in the processes. In the first stage, the recommendation calls for action to be completed for all central ministries within the next six months, followed by bringing states on the platform in a phased manner. A dedicated central budget has also been suggested to incentivise states to completely shift to the portal.
2. Statutory obligation on all public authorities for time-bound delivery of services and redressal of grievances, with a provision of deemed approval for industry applications and delivery of services from the central ministries beyond the prescribed timeline.
3. Stronger Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism to speed up dispute resolution through both improving the capacity of courts. The industry body suggests that states with a high pendency of cases need to set up more commercial courts while also working on increasing the efficiency of the existing judicial system.
The recommendation stresses the need to promote use of conciliation, mediation, and arbitration with allocation of a central budget to establish a “Mediation Council of India” and an “Arbitration Council of India” at the earliest.
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4. Expansion of scope of National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) to include data of tribunals, which constitute a substantial chunk of the pendency of cases in the system. NJDG had been set up to identify, manage and reduce pendency of cases across the courts.
5. Streamlining environmental compliances via a unified framework consolidating all requirements into a single document. The recommendation suggests incorporation of relevant provisions of the Water Act, 1974, and the Air Act, 1981 into the Environmental Protection Act, 1986, to centralize air and water pollution regulations. It calls for a performance-based incentive system to recognise companies that consistently exceed environmental standards by offering expedited environmental/forest approvals, clearances and permits.
6. Easy access to land to facilitate new or expanding businesses by incentivising states to develop an Online Integrated Land Authority, with an objective to streamline land banks, digitise and integrate land records, provide information on disputed land and guide necessary reforms.
To assist industry in land acquisition across the nation, CII suggests that the India Industrial Land Bank (IILB) can be evolved into a National Level Land Bank, with dedicated central budget support. IILB currently provides information on land across a majority of states.
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7. Expansion of scope of the Shram Suvidha Portal to function as a centralised portal for all central and state labour laws compliances. The portal currently facilitates integrated compliances in just a few select central Acts.
8. Need to make the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) programme more attractive and easier to join to improve trade facilitation. AEO allows numerous priority clearances to members. The recommendation says that additional benefits could be in the form of increasing the period of deferred duty payment from 15 days to 30 days, simplifying the renewal process for AEO Tier 2 and Tier 3 by allowing renewals based on self-declaration and permitting MSMEs to join the programme with 10 shipping bills in a year rather than 5 in each two halves of the year.
9. Synchronisation of legal metrology rules with International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) for declarations on retail products for imports. The recommendation adds that imported Weights & Measures (W&M) equipment certified by OIML approved labs, with no alterations or modifications made before sale, should be exempted from additional Indian Model Approval.
10. Minimise income tax litigation by unclogging the pendency at the level of Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) and improving the effectiveness of ADR mechanism such as Advance Pricing Agreement (APA), Boards for Advance Rulings (BAR) and Dispute Resolution Scheme (DRS).
