Uneasy over low rank in ‘ease of doing business’, Punjab writes to Centre

Chandigarh The Punjab government has conveyed to the Union commerce and industry ministry its dissatisfaction with the state’s low rank in the ease of doing business survey despite having implemented reforms. In the Business Reform Action Plan 2019 rankings representing the performance of states and union territories on ease of doing business which were announced by DPIIT on September 5, Punjab was at 19th place, just one notch higher than the 20th rank the state got in 2017-18 when it was sluggish in implementation. The EODB rankings, which were launched by the Centre five years ago to encourage competition among states for improvement in business environment to attract investments, also gave full weightage to feedback about the effectiveness of the reforms – an area that has not been the state’s strong suit. In 2016, Punjab had got 12th rank, but has not able to get anywhere close since, slipping to 20th position in 2018 due to non-implementation of 45% of the 372 action points for reforms in areas related to labour, single window system, environment clearances, construction permits, paying taxes, obtaining utility certificates, land availability and allotment, enforcing contracts, registering property and carrying out inspections.