The Commerce and Industry Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has sought the cooperation of States in easing the regulatory environment for doing businesses by cutting down on unnecessary paper work and approvals.
An advisory has been sent to the Secretaries of all Central Ministries and Principal Secretaries of States and Union Territories listing the measures to be taken on a priority basis for helping in smooth functioning of businesses, according to a note posted on the Web site of the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP).
All departments (both Centre and States) have been asked to ensure that all returns are allowed to be filed online through a unified form. A check-list of required compliance is to be placed on respective departments’ Web portals.
Further, all registers required to be maintained by the business should be replaced with a single electronic register.
'Inspector raj'
To bring down the menace of 'inspector raj', it has been proposed that no inspection should be undertaken without the approval of the Head of the Department.
For all non-risk, non-hazardous businesses, DIPP has recommended that a system of self-certification should be introduced.
“A letter has been written by the Minister to Chief Ministers of all States and administrators of all UTs to partner with DIPP in taking these initiatives forward to ease the business regulatory environment in the country,” the note said.
DIPP has already started the process of applying online for industrial licence and industrial entrepreneur memorandum. “This will lead to ease of filing applications and online payment of service charges and ensure that no entrepreneur has to come to the Ministry to file his/her application or make payment,” the note added.
The department is also implementing the eBiz project which will create an investor-centric hub-and-spoke based online single window model for providing clearances and filing compliances. This project will provide a single platform to avail business and investment-related services.