Ahead of the Union Budget 2025-26, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Sunday shared a 10-point agenda to further improve ease of doing business (EoDB) in the country, where urgent policy interventions would be immensely helpful.
Emphasising the key areas of business reforms in the country, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of CII, stated that simplifying regulatory frameworks, reducing compliance burdens, and enhancing transparency should continue to remain the focus agenda for the next several years.
“Compliances for industries related to various areas such as land, labour, dispute resolution, paying taxes, and the environment offer a vast scope for reduction, which is vital for boosting competitiveness, driving economic growth, and generating employment,” he said in a statement.
Firstly, all regulatory approvals — at central, state, and local levels — must mandatorily be provided only through the National Single Window System (NSWS), which will help bring about transparency and speed in the processes.
According to the apex industry chamber, a dedicated central budget could be allocated for this purpose, especially from the point of view of incentivising states to shift completely to the portal.
“Secondly, to ensure the timely processing of industry applications and delivery of services from central ministries, an Act imposing a statutory obligation on all public authorities for time-bound delivery of services and redressal of grievances could be passed, with the provision of deemed approval beyond the prescribed timeline,” the CII noted.
Next, the process of dispute resolution should be expedited by improving the capacity of courts and placing greater reliance on the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism.
States with a high pendency of cases need to set up more commercial courts while also working on increasing the efficiency of the existing judicial system.
“Fourth, the scope of the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), which has been set up to identify, manage, and reduce the pendency of cases across the courts, needs to be expanded to include the data of tribunals, which constitute a substantial chunk of the case backlog in the system,” according to the CII agenda.
Fifth, for streamlining environmental compliances, a unified framework could be introduced that consolidates all requirements into a single document. Relevant provisions of the Water Act, 1974, and the Air Act, 1981, could be incorporated into the Environmental Protection Act, 1986, to centralise air and water pollution regulations.
The sixth point stated that easy access to land is crucial to facilitate new or expanding businesses.
“States may be incentivised to develop an Online Integrated Land Authority with the objective of streamlining land banks, digitising and integrating land records, providing information on disputed land, and guiding necessary reforms,” said the CII.
To assist industry in land acquisition across the nation, the India Industrial Land Bank (IILB), which currently provides information on land across the majority of states, could be evolved into a National-Level Land Bank, with dedicated central budget support.
Seventh, labour compliances continue to be extensive and arduous and await the implementation of the four Labour Codes.
Additionally, the scope of the Shram Suvidha Portal, which currently facilitates integrated compliance in just a few select central Acts, needs to be expanded to function as a centralised portal for all central and state labour law compliances, according to the industry chamber.
“Eighth, improving trade facilitation is important. There is a need to make the Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) programme, which allows numerous priority clearances to members, more attractive and easier to join,” it noted.
Additional benefits could include increasing the period of deferred duty payment from 15 days to 30 days, simplifying the renewal process for AEO Tier 2 and Tier 3 by allowing renewals based on self-declaration, and permitting MSMEs to join the programme with 10 shipping bills a year rather than 5 in each two halves of the year.
The ninth point concerns greater trade facilitation, where allied legal metrology rules should be aligned with the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) for declarations on retail products for imports.
Finally, the high and rising pendency of tax disputes is a major issue, and there is a need to minimise income tax litigation by unclogging the pendency at the level of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) and improving the effectiveness of ADR mechanisms such as Advance Pricing Agreements (APA), Boards for Advance Rulings (BAR), and Dispute Resolution Schemes (DRS), the CII said.
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