New Delhi: To promote ease of doing business in the country, Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday proposed to bring legislation where the need for multiple prior permissions can be replaced with a pre-existing regulatory mechanism.
India may rank poorly on ‘ease of doing business’, but it emerged as a high-focus area in Jaitley’s first full-fledged Budget on Saturday, literally, with as many as ten mentions.
“Investors spend a large amount of time and resources on getting the multiple permissions required. We aim towards ease of doing in India,” said Jaitley in his budget speech.
Finance minister informed that he himself launched the e-Biz portal, which integrates 14 regulatory permissions at one source.
“Good States are embracing and joining this platform. However, if we really want to create jobs, we have to make India an investment destination which permits the start of a business in accordance with publically stated guidelines and criteria,” said Jaitley.
“I intend to appoint an Expert Committee for this purpose to examine the possibility and prepare a draft legislation where the need for multiple prior permissions can be replaced with a pre-existing regulatory mechanism,” he added.
Jaitley said to further facilitate the ease of doing business, online central excise and service tax registration will be done in two working days.
“The assessees under these taxes will be allowed to issue digitally signed invoices and maintain electronic records. These measures will cut down lot of paper work and red tape,” Jaitley said.
“Time limit for taking CENVAT credit on inputs and input services is being increased from six months to one year as a measure of business facilitation,” said Arun Jaitley.
India has been ranked 142 among the 189 countries in the latest World Bank report, falling two places from last year's ranking. Lower rank is one of the reasons to get less foreign direct investment into the country.
The newly formed government is taking steps to bring India into the top 50 ranks.
