Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot to monitor ease of doing business in the state

KOLKATA: With the Centre linking additional capital requirements of states to reforms, Rajasthan government has put 'implementation of the ease of doing business (EoDB) parameters' on fast-track.
In a press statement issued on Thursday, Rajasthan government 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. Gupta said the chief minister would personally monitor the progress on EoDB parameters achieved by various departments.

"Ensuring the achievement of EoDB goals is more necessary now than before. We need to establish responsibilities, identify focus areas, and set a time-bound 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. These guidelines are aimed to make more and more business-related government processes accessible online and free of any physical contact. The states are expected to comply with the directives till January 2021.

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 crore - Rs 11,000 crore.

Incidentally, the EoDB 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. We, therefore, need portals at the state level to deal with all the user-related requirements,” said Subodh Agarwal, additional chief secretary, department of industries, government of Rajasthan.

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, the release stated.

The chief secretary has 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.

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.

All this has already been communicated by Gupta while addressing a high-level meeting with officials from the urban development, local self-governance, tourism, excise, mines, energy, PWD, PHED, forest and several other departments at the secretariat on Wednesday.