Chandigarh ranks 29th in ease of doing business

Both Haryana and Punjab secured better ranks than Chandigarh, with Haryana being ranked 16th and Punjab 19th.

“The main reason for Chandigarh scoring a low rank in the Ease of Doing Business is non-implementation of Chandigarh Industrial Policy of 2015. Major points of setbacks are non-conversion of leasehold industrial plots to freehold and no increase in FAR,” said Naveen Manglani, President Chamber of Chandigarh Industries.

He further said, “There is rigidity of the rules here, leaving no scope for growth and ease of doing business. I will say that Chandigarh’s loss is Punjab and Haryana’s gain. This is a very serious matter and the administration needs to do serious introspection. It may outsource consultants for thorough study and analysis, involving the industry, who are the real stakeholders. Bringing in changes in age-old rules and regulations, will not only add value to the revenues of the industry but to the state exchequer as well.”

Chandigarh Industrialists said that a lot was needed to be done by the administration as far as industries are concerned.

The states and UTs are ranked on 187 parameters, including access to information and transparency enabler, single-window system, land administration and transfer of land and property, land availability and allotment, environment registration enablers, construction permit enablers, labour regulation-enablers, and obtaining utility permits.

According to the government, the ranks of states are based on the implementation of Business Reform Action Plan that was started in 2015.

Till date, ranks have been released for 2015, 2016, and 2017-18. The Business Reform Action Plan 2018-19 includes 180 reform points covering 12 business regulatory areas such as access to information, single window system, labour, environment, etc. The larger objective of attracting investments and increasing ease of doing business in each state was sought to be achieved by introducing an element of healthy competition through a system of ranking states based on their performance in the implementation of Business Reform Action Plan. The ranking this time gives weightage to the feedback from over thirty thousand respondents on ground, who registered their opinion about the effectiveness of the reforms.

The rankings are aimed at helping states attract investments, foster healthy competition and increase ease of doing business.

Chandigarh has not been able to fare well in the rankings till now. States including Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh have earned better rankings than Chandigarh.

While UP ranked second, Delhi secured the 12th rank.