Buoyed by the jump in India's 'ease of doing business' ranking, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday vowed to continue reforms that would help the country break into top 50 nations. According to the World Bank, India's rank on 'ease of doing business' has risen from 130th to 100th this year, helped by a slew of reforms in taxation, licensing, investor protection and bankruptcy resolution. Addressing a press conference minutes after the World Bank ranking was made public, Jaitley said India was the only major country named for pursuing structural reforms. "In 2014, we were 142nd and then (in) last two years, we improved to 131st and 130th. These are not generalised rankings. It happened in specific areas and they take tough parameters for that ranking," he said. The "highest jump" in ranking was possible as significant improvements in all the 10 judging parameters were made in last 3-4 years "so that it becomes easy to do business in India," he said. The World Bank, he said, had named 10 countries where structural reforms were taken. India was one of them. Jaitley said in 3 years the ranking had improved from 142nd to 100th and sufficient work was ongoing in areas that India lagged behind. "There is a reason to believe that we have a capacity to further significantly improve our position," he said. ALSO READ: India leaps 30 places to 100th rank in World Bank’s ‘ease of doing business’ index The World Bank said India still lagged in areas such as starting a business, enforcing contracts and dealing with construction permits. It takes 30 days now to register a new business, down from 127 days about 15 years ago, but "the number of procedures is still cumbersome for local entrepreneurs who still need to go through 12 procedures", it said. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi said our target should be to take India immediately into top 50. I believe this is doable and therefore we will push with greater force in these remaining 3-4 areas where work has to be done," the Finance Minister said. Elaborating on the ranking, he said there had been a significant improvement in parameters such as protecting the interest of minority investors after changes were made in the company law. "We are now ranked 4th in the world, the biggest jump in this field," he said. In availability of credit, India is ranked 29th. "Biggest jump has been on improvements that we have done on the taxation front. Till last year, out of 189 nations, we were 172nd. It means paying taxes were a very cumbersome process and we were down. But this year we have moved up 53 places," he said. Also, with the enactment of the new bankruptcy law, India's ranking on insolvency resolution has also improved. The ranking does not include the impact Goods and Services Tax (GST) has created as the cut off for judging the business environment was June 1. "In the coming years, we are expecting to get the credit for this and also in areas where work is in progress," he said. Giving examples, he said India was ranked low at 164th in the enforcement of contracts but the Arbitration Act would help improve this. Similarly, states are being impressed upon to give building construction permits online and fast permissions are handed out. "One reform they have not factored in is starting a new business. In this, we are at 156th position and now we have created a provision in the company act," Jaitley said. Jaitley said the government was seriously taking up the 3-4 issues where India still lagged behind so that in next 1-2 years there would be an improvement of 20-30 points in the ranking. "If you see the first available data for August and September, every data that is coming out seems to be in the more positive zone," he said. The finance minister said reforms were a continuous process. "The 3-4 areas where we haven't been treated very high are all areas where a significant amount of work is in progress and once its impact is shown to the ground, I'm sure it will be taken into consideration in next year's ranking," he said.
