Aiming to improve its ratings in ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and be among the top three states, Odisha has targeted to implement all reforms listed under ‘Business Reforms Action Plan 2017’ by the end of July.
The action plan has 405 points relating to 18 administrative departments. So far, the government departments have ensured compliance with 173 action points. Twelve action points are found not to be applicable. The balance 235 points are concerned with the digitisation of 47 services.
Among the services that would be uploaded online are registration of VAT, CST, professional tax, entry tax and entertainment tax, online filing of returns, online tax payment, power connection application, consent to establish and operate, property registration, application for trade license & renewal of license, application for change of land use, land allotment application and permission to draw water for industries.
At the last round of rankings under ‘Ease of Doing Business’, Odisha had tanked to the 11th slot, from seventh held earlier. The slip in ranking was despite the state’s improvement in overall score from 58 to 90. But, with the top states achieving a score between 93 and 98, Odisha is looking to improve its overall score as well to outpace its peers.
The evaluation framework by the Indian government for business reforms of 2017 would be guided by the feedback from the industries and the industries’ associations. Keeping this appraisal criterion in view, the respective government departments would take adequate measures to spread publicity about the reforms undertaken by the investor community during July-October. The quality of implementation of reforms is proposed to be vetted by the department secretaries.
A senior state government official said, “To have more ease in business procedures, we will design and implement a system that allows an online application, submission, payment, tracking and monitoring without the need for a physical touch point for document submission and verification. The government will also mandate that all applications are submitted online and we hope to implement this by September.’’
The Odisha government has also decided to gradually move away from the e-Biz system. As a replacement for the existing e-Biz platform, the state’s investment promotion agency— Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (Ipicol) would put in place a centralised online system for application, payment, tracking and downloading the final approved certificate. Various other online services currently in use would be integrated with this new system. Ipicol would also offer support to various government departments in reviewing the requirements of the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP).
To take stock of the implementation of the business reforms for 2017, the chief minister would take a bi-monthly review while the chief secretary will monitor their progress each month.