State slips to 13th place in ease of doing business

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, November 01, 2016,  DHNS: Ranked ninth in 2015, Karnataka has slipped to the 13th position in the ‘ease of doing business’ ratings this year.

Union Commerce and Industries Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the ranks on Monday. The Centre’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and the World Bank jointly award the ratings.

Karnataka featured among the better-performing states in tax, environment, labour and inspection reforms.

Andhra Pradesh and Telangana shared the first position, leading on almost all parameters, including tax reforms. They got credit for smoother grant of land, labour and construction permits.

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat slipped to the third position from last year’s first.  In the crucial area of construction permits, Karnataka lost, despite the authorities saying most approvals were streamlined and made available online.

In tax reforms, Karnataka was lauded for mandating e-registration for value-added tax (VAT), central sales tax (CST), professional tax, and entry tax.

The state got a pat for promoting online payments and providing support for e-filing of tax papers.

Karnataka was also hailed for implementing advanced automated solutions for environment- and pollution-related applications.

Last year, when the state came ninth, officials in Bengaluru had said they would lodge a complaint with the Centre, seeking a re-assessment of the ranking.

First in investment

New Delhi: Curiously, in August this year, the Centre had ranked Karnataka first on the basis of investments received. The state got Rs 67,757 crore between January and June, three times more than what Gujarat had received.

In 2015, Gujarat had won distinction for attracting more investments than any other state.

What’s this index?

New Delhi: The ease of doing business index was created by the World Bank Group, a group of five international organisations that lend to ’developing’ countries.

The index has been around since 2003, and uses inputs from officials, lawyers, business consultants, accountants and other professionals to rank 185 economies.

It uses 10 sub-indices, measuring, among other things, the cost and time involved in getting permissions to start a business and pay taxes.

The index also gauges how easy it is to gain access to infrastructure, construct buildings,, and register property and obtain protection for it.