Regulatory burden on 8 sectors to be eased soon

In the first phase, most of the outdated regulations in the state and central Acts will be removed. Further, compliances with regard to annual inspections, licence renewal, and storage of multiple data will be eased.

IMAGE: Kindly note that this image has been used for representational purposes only. Photograph: Reuters.

The government has prepared a five-phase road map to ease the regulatory and compliance burden faced by companies, and has identified at least eight sectors, including retail, hospitality, entertainment, cement, leather, and food processing, which have to comply with hundreds of legislative and regulatory requirements at present.

To make it effective, the department for promotion for industry and internal trade (DPIIT) is coordinating and working with various states, ministries and departments and has identified processes and permissions, especially ones that require periodic compliances and renewals.

“It is true that there are very cumbersome procedures when it comes to sectors like retail, hotels, and entertainment, where they are required to fulfill multiple compliances. The government has given task to all the ministries and each one has reviewed the current framework. We have divided the whole exercise in five categories. The first one is to be done by the end of March, where we are aiming to reduce the annual inspection and digitising each data, are doing away with licence renewals or make it for longer period, and also looking at compiling multiple data into one," said DPIIT secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra, while speaking at a panel discussion organised by Ficci on Friday.

Mohapatra said the department had received at least 200 suggestions from trade bodies and others on various regulations and Acts which were needed to be simplified or scrapped.

A study shows that on average, there are at least 2,000 compliance items that a company has to conform annually. Sectors like manufacturing have to comply with at least 6,000 items per year. Even industrialised states like Maharastra and Gujarat have very high compliance requirements.

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