Although India has increase its Global Rankings from 140 some years back to 63 now in the of Ease of Doing Business, however the same is largely due to two legislature reforms namely GST and Insolvency. Of the 10 parameters which are considered for ranking, India average in 6 of them is 34 and in rest of the four it is 142. One of the highest score of 136 is in “starting a business in India”. If the Government can make a single change in this policy and making provision for seeking just one document instead of multiple documents, it will be real ease of doing business for many.  

BY CA JUGRAJ SINGH BEDI

The World Bank makes a list on 10 parameters related to Business Environment of 190 countries and ranks them. This list is popularly known as Ease of Doing Business and lower the rank of a country the perception of outside business people is higher for that country.

New Zealand is at the top of the chart and Somalia at the bottom.

India has increase its ranking from 140 some years back to 63 now but the same is largely due to two legislature reforms namely GST and Insolvency.

Of the 10 parameters which are considered for ranking, India average in 6 of them is 34 and in rest of the four it is 142. One of the highest score of 136 is in “starting a business in India”.

When we talk about starting a business, we generally mean the following

1.      Incorporation of a company

2.      Filing the PAN application

3.      Opening a Bank Account

4.      Applying for GST

5.      Applying for other statutory approvals

At present incorporating a company is most cumbersome, not because the process is faulty but because clear guidelines are not given and multiple documents are required at different stages.

For incorporation different documents are required for identity and address proof. As address proofs following documents are required

•        Telephone Bill / Mobile Bill.

•        Electricity Bill / Water Bill.

•        Bank Statement /Bank Passbook with latest transaction.

The address given in above documents should also match with the address as given in Aadhar, Passport or Driving License.

From here the problem starts. In the present times people keep on changing their addresses and some documents like Aadhar and Passport have the address of their parents address. This does not change. Moreover the officers sit there with a power lens and even if there is a slight mismatch in the form they reject it.

Solution

If the Government can change this policy and instead of seeking multiple documents can have only one document like

1.      If Passport is available then only passport is sufficient

2.      If Passport is not available then OTP verified Aadhar should be sufficient.

I am reasonable sure that with this one reform, the ranking in “Starting a Business in India” will increase.