In order to improve the ease of doing business on “priority basis”, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has asked all secretaries of central ministries and chief secretaries of the states and Union Territories to simplify regulatory environment and to introduce online filing of forms. This initiative is part of government's 'Make in India' drive to attract investments and make the country a global manufacturing hub.
Laying out the steps, DIPP underscored that all return forms should be filed online through a unified form; a check-list of required compliances should be placed on the department's web portal and should be maintained under a single electronic register.
DIPP also asserted that it did not want any inspection to be undertaken without the prior approval of the Head of the Department and that the system of self-certification should be introduced for all non-risk, non-hazardous businesses.
Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is basically taking all the steps to bring India into the top-50 ranking in terms of 'ease of doing business', which is a tall task since India ranks 142 among the 189 countries in the World Bank report in this area.
Highlighting few of the steps taken towards this development, DIPP pointed that registration process of VAT and professional tax has been merged into a single process with single ID on January 1, 2015 by Maharashtra; time required for giving a new electric connection in Mumbai has been reduced to 21 days from 67 days and the number of procedures involved has been cut down to three from seven and that process of applying for Industrial License and Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandum has been made online and this service is now available to entrepreneurs on 24x7 bases at the e-Biz website.