Taking stock of the progress in four reform areas which the Centre has imposed as conditions for enhancing the States’ borrowing limits under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act , Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy reiterated that while striving to improve the ease-of-doing-business (EoDB) ranking, officials must focus on compliance with the safety and pollution norms by the industries while issuing clearances through the single window system.
FRBM rules
“A concerted effort should be made in that direction by keeping in mind that a series of avoidable industrial accidents have dented the State’s image to some extent,” said Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy during a review meeting on Monday.
He said that EoDB was one of the key reform areas prescribed by the Centre as a step towards relaxing the FRBM rules to enable the States to raise funds amid the fallout of the COVID pandemic.
Referring to the ‘one nation one ration card’, The civil supplies officials informed the Chief Minister that Andhra Pradesh was leading in comparison to other States in launching portability and bringing in transparency through biometric system. Seeding of rice cards with Aadhaar numbers has almost been completed. Already, 1.39 crore rice cards have been issued.
ULB revenue
On increasing the revenues of urban local bodies, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the service delivery should be improved with emphasis on drinking water supply and sanitation. “Only then, the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department can think about garnering additional revenue,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that reforms in power sector was a major thrust area on the Centre’s agenda and it should be the State’s focal point too. He exhorted the power utilities to bring down the aggregate technical and commercial losses, and bridge the gap between the average cost of supply of per unit of power and average revenue realised.
“The DISCOMs reeling under heavy losses were bailed out to an extent after the YSRCP came to power,” he observed.