Modi promises reforms to improve business climate, hints at changes to GST

Modi hits out at critics, says those who had worked at World Bank earlier were now critical of the ranking

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said more reforms will be rolled out to further ease the business climate in the country, while pointing out that the recent jump in India’s rank in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report was only a beginning. 

The PM was addressing ‘India’s Business Reforms Conference’, a mega event jointly held with World Bank in the capital on Saturday, to elaborate on how India was able to move up 30 places in the Ease of Doing Business pecking order. Hitting out at those who have doubted India’s progress in ease of doing business, the PM said those who had worked at World Bank earlier were now critical of the ranking. Taking a dig at Congress party leaders, the PM argued that the World Bank initiated preparations for mapping ease of doing business way back in 2004 but India’s rankings didn’t improve in so many years. Among other politicians, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had earlier worked with World Bank. 

Even as he did not get into the details of future reforms that could improve India’s ranks further in the global report next year, Modi promised to ease traders’ problems in relation to goods and services tax (GST). The GST Council during its next meeting on November 9-10 will make necessary changes to further ease the glitches being faced by traders, he indicated. 

 

Overall, the long list reforms initiated by the government over the past three years has helped the country achieve the ‘significant’ jump and can only propel the domestic industry forward, Modi pointed out. 

“In management terms, we have achieved critical mass for a swift take-off,” the PM summed up.

Released earlier this week, the report saw India breaking into the top 100 club of nations easiest to do business in. India was also adjudged the fifth best-performing nation globally in reforming the business environment. 

World Bank Chief Executive Officer Kristalina Georgieva, who was present at the event, besides Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) secretary Ramesh Abhishek and other officials, said such a major jump in business environment in a large and complicated country like India was commendable.

What happens in India, matters greatly for the global community, Georgieva said, since developing nations like South Africa can take note and ease their processes. The government’s vision of eradicating poverty from India by 2022 was ‘quite achievable’, according to the World Bank CEO.

The DIPP secretary had told Business Standard earlier this week that for the next year, the government would push for more than 200 reforms that had been implemented by it but were not considered by the World Bank for this year’s rankings. Also, on the to-do list is more than 90 new reforms that are now being finalised.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) reforms in 21 sectors across 87 policy areas have been implemented while total FDI into India has seen a 67 per cent increase in short span of 3 years, the PM pointed out.

Modi also reminded the audience that India had recently improved its standing in the Global Competitiveness Index, Global Innovation and the Global Logistics Index. There was no mention of the findings of the recently released Global Hunger Index which has seen India slip three positions to rank lower than countries such as North Korea and Iraq.