CM: In process of removing hurdles for ease of biz

Panaji: Decriminalisation of archaic laws, policy tweaks and a thrust towards online services form the three-pronged strategy towards ease of doing business, said chief minister Pramod Sawant here on Friday.
Sawant said that as many as 70 outdated laws, that attract criminal proceedings, will be decriminalised in the months ahead.
“There are some legal problems created for various sectors, not only the industry, and that is why we are working towards decriminalisation of certain laws. We have already removed 12-13 laws and we are working to decriminalise many other old laws, maybe 50 to 70,” said Sawant at the annual general meeting of the Goa State Industries Association.
Sawant admitted that many initiatives aimed at improving ease of doing business get stuck due to the lack of legal provisions to back them up.
“We will bring in amendments to provide a way to create ease of doing business. I tell officers who say that there is no provision for something to immediately draft an amendment which can be passed. Whatever needs to be done, will be brought in through amendments and these will be brought in in the assembly,” said the chief minister.
“We want to remove the unnecessary, old laws that create a hurdle. We need to go into online mode, in each and every department. All government services need to go online. Only if we do this can we fast track ease of doing business,” said Sawant.
Speaking earlier GSIA president Damodar Kochkar highlighted the pain points of Goa’s entrepreneurs. Koohckar said that industrial units are struggling for basic infrastructure.
“Infrastructure remains a problem. Because of the erratic power, there are huge losses; operational losses as well as material losses. There is a need to provide a good power distribution network for the industry. For the last five years no investment has come into the state because of this,” said Kochkar.
The GSIA president also criticised several departments for harassing entrepreneurs. He said that Goa Industrial Development Corporation takes long to process applications while third-party auditors from other states have doubled their fees for regular compliances. When Kochkar questioned chief inspector for factories and boilers Vivek Marathe about the increase in audit fees, Marathe claimed to be in the dark.
“If the chief of the department does not know about it, then how are we supposed to know? The factories chief inspector wants to do stability testing of industrial units but first he should get the stability testing done of the IDC office,” said Kochkar.