Will scrap more compliances, says DPIIT’s Jain

DPIIT secretary Anurag Jain, in an interview, said discussions are underway to remove 2,000-2,500 compliances in addition to the more than 25,000 cut last year. Edited excerpts:

How is the government approaching Ease of Doing Business 2.0?

We moved up from 140 to 63 in terms of ease of doing business ranking, but our goal is to be the best in the world. So, it’s a continuous process; we are looking for ways to simplify further ease of doing business.

One way of doing it is to computerize it so that you can access it at home. Second, you can increase the time period for seeking a licence. For instance, if businesses need to renew a licence in three years, it can be increased to 5. Another way is to reduce frequent inspections. It can become more trust-based.

Decriminalization is yet another way of doing it. Also, removing duplication would be key. Two or more departments looking for the same information can ask for a single form and reduce the harassment.

We are also in consultation with the industry on creating a framework for the cost of doing business. This gamut of activities will help us achieve better ease of business in the country.

What is the timeline?

We have asked the state governments to reduce the compliance burden. We had a state conference on 22 December, and we requested them to give their own agenda by 31 January and then they were asked to quantify the process by 15 August. That was one timeline for the reduction of compliance burden. It has come as collective wisdom that we need to bring ease of business 2.0. So we will be having a wider consultation. So the 2022 evaluation will come on a new framework. This year, the ranking will also be done under the new framework Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) Plus.

How many compliances do you plan to do away with this year? Is there a time frame?

That is a work in progress and will depend on consultations with departments and states. But, last year, about 32,000 compliances were identified, and 26,000 were reduced. We decided that 3,500 of the total recommended will not be possible to do away with completely. We are left with around 2,000-2,500 compliances that are still under consideration.

Are there plans to further ease FDI norms?

If a problem is brought to our notice, we will correct it. We are currently working on the LIC disinvestment. To facilitate LIC disinvestment, we needed to change certain FDI policies, which we are doing. We are at the last stage of the inter-ministerial consultation. Otherwise, we have not heard there is a problem in our interpretation of our guidelines.

How many players are on board for Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC)?

It is not like players need to be on board for ONDC. It is an open architecture, open network, open standards, open protocols. So basically, we are laying down the foundation for anyone to come up with. It is similar to what UPI did for the payment system.

UPI connects users on Google Pay or any other platform, so users can pay by just having the phone number. So you don’t have to be on that platform. Globally it’s an understanding that open architecture is a much better way of running our technology systems. It will initiate a chain reaction for new platforms to be set up. UPI resulted in a lot of payment platforms rushing into India. ONDC will have a similar impact. We have a lot of things to iron out, and we are working on it.

Any fresh timeline for the e-commerce policy?

We made a presentation to the honourable minister (Piyush Goyal) following which he gave us some guidance.

We are in the consultation process, and we are also trying to tie loose ends. Once we do that, we’ll have a consultation once again. Decision-making is a complex process in government. We have started taking it very seriously; we are following it up.