Ludhiana, Mansa top ease of doing biz rankings in state
WOOING INVESTORS Intra-state monthly rankings to inculcate competition among districts in Punjab, help state improve its grading at the national level
CHANDIGARH: Ludhiana and Mansa districts have topped the intrastate ease of doing business rankings prepared by the state government.
Ludhiana has emerged on the top among the 10 large industrial districts with a score of 81.97%, followed by Patiala and Amritsar in the rankings finalised by the investment promotion department for February. The monthly district ease of business rankings, which were started by the investment promotion department in January, are based on regulatory clearances granted by districts, speed of action and industry feedback through the Invest Punjab business first portal of the state.
Mohali (SAS Nagar), Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Bathinda, Fatehgarh Sahib, Sangrur and Kapurthala are the other districts in this category.
Ludhiana also topped the category in January with Mohali and Fatehgarh bagging the second and third spots, respectively. Besides these large industrial districts, the remaining 12 districts, mostly non-industrialised ones in comparison, have also been clubbed separately in another category. Mansa has topped the chart in this category with 78.12% score in the February rankings followed by Ferozepur and Muktsar.
Invest Punjab chief executive officer Rajat Agarwal said the districts will be ranked every month on the basis of total applications received for regulatory clearances and financial incentives, approvals granted within the timeline, average time taken and user ratings. “The idea is to inculcate healthy competition among districts to improve business climate and attract investment. It will also help Punjab improve its ease of doing business grading at the national level,” he said.
Punjab was at the 20th spot and listed among the “aspirers” – a euphemism for laggards – in the performance-based ease of doing business rankings prepared jointly by the World Bank and the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) of the Union commerce ministry oneand-a-half years ago due to slow pace of reforms in the state. The DIPP had last year advised the states to rank the districts on the “ease of doing business” matrix and users’ feedback.
Punjab, which is probably the first state to start district-level ease of doing business rankings, is grading them on the basis of regulatory clearances for 48 services and 34 fiscal incentives relating to labour, power, fire services, housing and urban development, industries and commerce, excise and taxation and local government departments, besides Punjab Pollution Control Board and Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).
Agarwal said about 13,000 approvals have been granted in various districts to industries, mostly micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), during this period and the average time taken for granting clearances is just about eight days.
As per the district ranking framework, a timeframe has been specified for each service and the maximum weightage of 40% is for applications approved within timeline followed by 30% average time taken for approval and 20% for user rating and 10% for the total number of applications received. The department has also appointed business facilitators in all districts to provide technical support to investors and a centralised helpline system.