Budget 2022: India to woo investors with trust-based governance
Premium- Sitharaman said that in recent years over 25,000 compliances were reduced and 1,486 union laws were repealed
New Delhi: Hungry for new investments to rev up economic growth, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced a plan in her budget for FY23 to shift to ‘trust-based governance’ which is set to change the culture of regulatory oversight in the country.
The move comes at a time when the government is pursuing an investment-led economic growth, after the covid-19 pandemic led to a contraction of 6.6% in FY21 gross domestic product (GDP).
Sitharaman said that in recent years over 25,000 compliances were reduced and 1,486 union laws were repealed. "This is the result of the government’s strong commitments for minimum government and maximum governance," she said.
The administration’s trust in the public and ease of doing business is highlighted here, the minister said, adding, the next phase of ease of doing business and ease of living will be launched.
“In our endeavour to improve productive efficiency of capital and human resources, we will follow the idea of trust- based governance," the minister said.
Experts said the finance minister’s emphasis on minimum government and maximum governance is critical for ease of doing business in India.
"Minimum government and maximum governance and reduction of overlapping compliances will increase compliance. It is critical for ease of doing business in India," said Tapati Ghose, Partner at Deloitte India. Trust-based governance is the planned theme for the next 25 years, said Ghose.
Sitharaman said the new phase of ease of doing business will be guided by an active involvement of states. It would entail digitisation of manual processes, integration of central and state level systems through IT bridges, single-point access for all citizen-centric services and standardisation and removal of overlapping compliance requirements. “Crowd sourcing of suggestions and ground-level assessment of impact with active involvement of citizens and businesses will be encouraged," the minister said.
"Ease of Doing Business 2.0 is a step in the right direction and single window clearance mechanism will go a long way in improving ease of doing business in India. It would also be important to include a mechanism of deemed approval for Central and state licenses to bring about a paradigm change for ease of doing business in India," said Nischal S Arora, partner at Nangia Andersen LLP, a consultancy.
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