While the ruling Peoples Democratic Party leadership is busy projecting J&K as a ‘safe destination’ for business ventures, a report by the World Bank has listed the State among “worst states to do business in India.”
The World Bank-prepared assessment report—All India Assessment of Business Reforms—ranks J&K at 29th place among 32 states assessed, with an overall score of 5.93 percent, thus making it figure among ‘worst states to do business with.’
Gujarat tops the list by scoring 71.14% in the status of implementation of the 98-point Reforms agenda.
According to the rank-wise list, only Meghalaya (4.38 %), Nagaland (3.41 %) and Arunachal Pradesh (1.23 %) are behind J&K.
Apart from Gujarat, other best performing states in implementation of Reforms are Andhra Pradesh at score of 70.12%, Jharkhand (63.09 %), Chhattisgarh (62.45), Madhya Pradesh (62 %), Rajasthan (61.04%), Orissa (52.12 %) and Maharashtra (49.43 %).
The neighboring states of J&K are far ahead in implementation of reforms with Haryana scoring 40.66 %, Delhi (37.35 %), Punjab (36.73 %), Himachal Pradesh (23.95 %).
Sources said despite being ranked 29th in the ‘All India Assessment of Business Reforms’, the J&K government has failed to initiate measures to implement key points of the Action Plan on Prime Minister’s Ease of Doing Business Initiative.
The World Bank has been asked by the Government of India to rank states on ‘Ease of Doing Business.’
“Out of the eight points identified by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), J&K has only implemented four points that too with half-hearted efforts,” said a senior official of Industries and Commerce department.
The state government constituted the State level Apex and Monitoring Committees to perform the activities assigned to them vis-à-vis Business Reforms, but has failed to have the desired results.
The Apex Committee headed by Chief Secretary was constituted on January 30, 2015 and it was mentioned in the Government Order No.129-GAD of 2015 that the Committee will address the issues identified by the DIPP for ensuring Ease of Doing Business and creating an enabling framework for stimulating investments in manufacturing.
Moreover, it was specifically mentioned that the Apex Committee will meet at least once a month or more frequently, while Monitoring Committee was supposed to meet at least once in two weeks or more frequently.
The apex committee, after a meeting, recommended revival of district-level single-window clearance system headed by District Development Commissioner for setting up of business units in micro and small scale industry sectors, no certification to be insisted upon during pre-registration phase, simplifying and removing all bottlenecks in the procedure for allotment of land, besides many other reforms.
However, according to stakeholders, the DDCs of various districts have failed to pay due attention to these issues.
“There is no follow up on committees’ recommendations, neither the meetings are being held on regular basis,” said President Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir, Muhammad Ashraf Mir.
He said there is a lot of ground work needed to improve JK’s ranking to encourage entrepreneurs.
The 98-point action plan on “Ease of Doing Business” was finalized in December 2014, during a meeting of Chief Secretaries of the states participating in the “Make In India” workshop inaugurated by Prime Minister Narender Modi. Subsequently it was decided to evaluate states to assess progress by June 2015.
The report further mentions that JK is “laggard in implementation of maximum reforms and needed jump start in each sector including tax registration and compliance, obtaining utilities connection, environment compliance, land allotment and obtaining construction permit, setting up a business and enforcement contracts.”
In carrying out inspection, J&K showed nil performance, according to the report.
