New Delhi: Industry body CII has put forward a 10-point specific suggestion before the central government ahead of Budget 2025, to increase Ease of Doing Business in India.
First, the industry body suggested that all regulatory approvals - central, state and local levels - must mandatorily be provided only through the National Single Window System (NSWS), which they believe will help bring about transparency and speed in the processes.
In the first stage, CII suggested that it should be completed for all central ministries within the next six months, followed by bringing on the platform, states, in a phased manner. A dedicated central budget could be allocated for the purpose, especially from the point of view of incentivizing states to shift completely to the portal.
In a continuously evolving competitive environment globally, coupled with rapidly changing geopolitical and economic conditions, sustained and speedy improvement in domestic business climate has assumed a high priority.
While India has over the last decade remained focused on improving ease of doing business (EoDB), there is a need to maintain the momentum especially in certain specific areas, CII said in a statement.
Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, said simplifying regulatory frameworks, reducing compliance burdens and enhancing transparency should continue to remain India's focus agenda for next several years.
"Compliances for industry related to various areas such as land, labour, dispute resolution, paying taxes and environment offer a vast scope for reduction, vital for boosting competitiveness, driving economic growth and employment generation," the industry captain said, as quoted in the statement.
In another suggestion towards Ease of Doing Business, CII said an Act, imposing statutory obligation on all public authorities for time-bound delivery of services and redressal of grievances, could be passed, with provision of deemed approval beyond the prescribed timeline.
Three, it called for expedition of process of dispute resolution through both improving the capacity of courts and placing greater reliance on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism.
Four, the scope of the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), which has been set up to identify, manage and reduce pendency of cases across the courts, needs to be expanded to include the data of tribunals, which constitute substantial chunk of pendency of cases in the system.
Further, for streamlining environmental compliances, a unified framework could be introduced, which consolidates all requirements into a single document, CII suggested.
"A performance-based incentive system can also be established to recognize companies that consistently exceed environmental standards by offering expedited environmental/forest approvals, clearances and permits," CII said.
Easy access to land is important to facilitate new or expanding businesses.
CII suggested that States may be incentivized to develop an Online Integrated Land Authority with an objective to streamline land banks, digitize and integrate land records, and provide information on disputed land, among others.
Among other suggestions were reducing labour compliances, improving trade facilitation, and minimising tax-related litigation.
As is the convention, the Budget for 2025-26 will be tabled on February 1, 2025.
The 2025-26 Budget will mark Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's eighth. All eyes will be on the key announcements and the government's forward-looking economic guidance for the remainder of the Modi 3.0 tenure.
This upcoming budget comes in the backdrop of weak GDP numbers and relatively weak consumption in the economy.
The Indian economy grew by 5.4 per cent in real terms in the July-September quarter of the current financial year 2024-25. The quarterly growth was quite lower than RBI's forecast of 7 per cent. In the April-June quarter too, India's GDP grew at a slower pace than was estimated by its central bank.
The Finance Ministry conducts several pre-budget consultation meetings annually with experts, industry leaders, economists, and state officials. The formal exercise to prepare the annual Budget for the next financial year has already begun.
Finance Minister Sitharaman herself has so far held a series of meetings with various stakeholders, including with MSMEs, farmers' associations, and economists. (ANI)