Ease of doing business rankings: TN, Karnataka among 7 top achievers

Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Telangana were the seven ‘Top Achievers’ in the ‘ease of doing business’ rankings, according to the Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP), 2020.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the assessment of States/Union Territories under BRAP 2020, the 5th edition of the BRAP exercise, in New Delhi on Thursday (June 30).

Also read: ‘Ease of doing business’ rankings leave a sense of unease in states

In the ‘Achievers’ category, six states — Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh — have made it to the list.

While Assam, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jharkhand, Kerala, Rajasthan and West Bengal have been placed in the ‘Aspirers’ category, Andaman & Nicobar, Bihar, Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Puducherry and Tripura have been clubbed under the ‘Emerging Business Ecosystems’ category.

According to the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, “Feedback could not be obtained for Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Lakshadweep and Ladakh due to insufficient user data.”

Also read: Centre develops rating system for ministries to promote ease of doing business

On Friday (July 1), Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Goods and Services Tax (GST) furthered ‘ease of doing business’.

“We mark #5YearsofGST, a major tax reform that furthered ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and fulfilled the vision of ‘One Nation, One Tax.’,” he tweeted.

We mark #5YearsofGST, a major tax reform that furthered ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and fulfilled the vision of ‘One Nation, One Tax.’ https://t.co/fL3kJbz4ty

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 1, 2022

Over 300 reform points

The BRAP 2020 includes 301 reform points covering 15 business regulatory areas such as access to information, single window system, labour, environment, land administration and transfer of land and property, utility permits and others, the ministry said.

Also, 118 new reforms were included to further augment the reform process. Sectoral reforms with 72 action points spread across nine sectors namely trade license, healthcare, legal metrology, cinema halls, hospitality, fire NOC, telecom, movie shooting and tourism were introduced for the first time to expand the scope of reform agenda, it added.

Also read: GST report card: In 5 years, states have given up more, gained less

As per the ministry, in a departure from the previous years, where States/UTs were ranked, this year they have been placed under the four categories – Top Achievers, Achievers, Aspirers and Emerging Business Ecosystems.

“The objective of assessing the States/UTs is not to create a hierarchy amongst States/UTs but to rather create an enabling framework wherein learnings can be shared amongst States/UTs which in turn will lead to a nationwide spill over of good practices. The assessment gives full weightage to the feedback obtained from actual users/respondents at the ground level, who provided their feedback about the effective implementation of reforms,” the ministry said.

Since 2014, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has been assessing States/UTs based on their performance in the implementation of prescribed reforms in BRAP. The previous assessments of States/UTs were released for the years 2015, 2016, 2017-18, and 2019.

‘Responsive reforms’

Speaking after releasing the assessment report, Sitharaman said that the nature of reforms had undergone change since 1991.

Also read: GST@5: ‘Maharashtra-like episodes widen Centre-state trust deficit’

“The reforms now taking place are responsive reforms. Unlike the reforms of 1991, which were given to us for implementation, there is no compulsion now. The objective is to see what will bring out improvement in systems and ensure better lives for us. An element of nudge has been brought into every layer of the government. Nudging cannot be by the government only and the industry has a big role to play there,” she said.

“Twenty states/UTs have institutionalised the Central Inspection System and fully developed online systems & enhanced service delivery for improving Ease Of Doing Business,” Sitharaman informed.

Twenty states/UTs have institutionalised the Central Inspection System and fully developed online systems & enhanced service delivery for improving Ease Of Doing Business. #IndiaMeansBusiness pic.twitter.com/WvJCqH3d5T

— NSitharamanOffice (@nsitharamanoffc) June 30, 2022

Speaking at the event, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said that the assessment has evolved from evidence-based to 100% feedback in multilingual format.

He said that the purpose of the BRAP exercise is to infuse a culture of learning from each other’s best practices and improve upon the business climate in each State/UT with a unified objective for India to emerge as a most favoured Investment Destination across the globe.

State of Progress!

The marked improvement of States/UTs under the Business Reforms Action Plan 2020 is a testament to Ease Of Doing Business across the country.

Modi Govt. is committed towards boosting innovation & enterprise in the country.#IndiaMeansBusiness pic.twitter.com/y3SUc6FguG

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) June 30, 2022

Watch LIVE: The release of Assessment of States/UTs Business Reforms Action Plan 2020.@DPIITGoI, since 2014, has been releasing #BRAP2020 for steering business reforms to create an investor-friendly ecosystem.#EaseofDoingBusiness #IndiaMeansBusinesshttps://t.co/4qvqdTxzFG

— Startup India (@startupindia) June 30, 2022