CM to monitor ease of doing business in Rajasthan

JAIPUR: With the Centre linking additional capital requirements of states to reforms, the state government is cracking the whip on fast-tracking the implementation of the ease of doing business (EoDB) parameters.
Chief secretary D B Gupta said that, from now on, chief minister Ashok Gehlot would chair meetings to ensure time-bound implementation of all the ease of doing business measures. After a meeting on Wednesday, Gupta said the chief minister would personally monitor the progress on EoDB parameters achieved by various departments.
Monthly meeting over EoDB goals
“Ensuring the achievement of EoDB goals is more necessary now than before. We need to establish responsibilities, identify focus areas, and set a timebound programme to fulfil the goals,” said Gupta, adding, “there would be monthly meetings with the department secretaries and nodal officers over the progress achieved.”
The Centre has not only increased the parameters of EoDB reforms, but also linked implementation with the additional borrowing limit of several states.
The additional borrowing limit has been set at 2% of the respective Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). In the case of Rajasthan, 1% of GSDP comes to about Rs 10,000-Rs 11,000 crore. The states are expected to comply with the directives till January 2021.
These guidelines are aimed to make more and more business-related government processes accessible online and free of any physical contact.
“We observed that several district-level business reforms proposed under the guidelines cannot be dealt merely at the district level and thus we need portals at the state level to deal with all the user-related requirements,” said Subodh Agarwal, additional chief secretary, department of industries.
Agarwal said the portal would also make provisions for future requirements as the central government keeps amending the EoDB criteria. “A centralised portal would ensure that the new parameters can be easily included,” he added.
The chief secretary asked related departments to enhance coordination with the department of information technology for the purpose. Underlining the need for a focused approach, he said that compliance of guidelines would be done under the guidance of industries commissioner, Muktanand Agarwal, who is the nodal officer for the implementation of EoDB.
“The departments need to sensitise respective nodal officers and ensure that objectives are met before the central government deadline of December. There is still time left for rectification if required,” said the commissioner of Industries.
He informed that the implementation of EoDB parameters would not be evaluated merely on the basis of changes in the government procedures and feedback of users would also be taken into consideration to determine if the reforms have benefitted the industry.