Chandigarh shows no improvement

Ramkrishan Upadhyay 

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 9

Chandigarh has shown no improvement in the state-wise ranking on assessment of implementation of the ‘Business Reforms Action Plan’ (BRAP) in 2017 and remained at the 28th position as the last date of submitting the evidence of implementation of these reforms on the BRAP portal is over.

Observing that several states/union territories (UTs) had not started uploading the evidence of implementation of these reforms on the BRAP portal, the Commerce and Industry Ministry had recently asked them to start uploading them before the deadline, which was extended from October 31 to November 7, 2017.

Sources said the final ranking is likely to be released in January 2018.

Telangana is currently atop the yearly state-wise ranking on assessment of implementation of the ‘Business Reforms Action Plan’ (BRAP) in 2017.

Telangana (with an implementation score of 61.83 per cent) is followed by Haryana (54.03 per cent), Odisha (45.70 per cent), Chhattisgarh (45.43 per cent), and West Bengal (44.35 per cent) — completing the top five.

The Commerce and Industry Ministry is the nodal body at the Centre for the exercise. This year’s assessment includes 372 reforms, up from 340 last year. The broad areas of assessment this year include paperless courts, online single window system, online tax payment, contract enforcement, land availability and allotment, obtaining electricity and water connections, enablers for transparency, tax, labour regulation, construction permits, environmental registration as well as commercial dispute resolution and online systems for property registration.

They also include registration and grant and renewal of licence under the Factories Act, approval of plan and permission to construct/extend/or take into use any building as a factory, registration and renewal of boilers, as well as compliance inspections under various laws.

Chandigarh was included in the list of the states that needed jump start in the 2016 ranking as it did not submit any information or evidence of reform implementation through the portal and ranked 31st in the ranking with the implementation score 0.3 per cent.

Yugal Mahajan, president of the Industries Association of Chandigarh, said the ranking shows the dismal picture of the implementation of the reforms by the Chandigarh Administration in the past one year.