How will businesses benefit from West Bengal’s Ease of Doing Business (EODB)Initiatives?

Shalin Verma

31 May, 2023

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) released a set of recommendations for the States under the Ease of Doing Business initiative to facilitate the setting up of new industries and business by simplification of business setup process, time-bound delivery of services, ease of access to information, transparency in inspection procedures etc. In West Bengal, various state departments have been assigned a wide range of activities. The West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB)^[1] has been vested with numerous action points to ease and simplify the Environmental Regulations applicable to businesses and industrial units. To streamline those action points, the WBPCB, under the guidance of the Department of Environment, has issued several Orders/ Circulars/Notifications in line with the requirements of State Reform Action Points (SRAP).

DPIIT, in partnership with the World Bank Group and coordination with the States and the UTs, has undertaken many reforms to improve business climate in India. Starting with a 98-point Reform Action Plan in 2014, successive State Reforms Action Plans (SRAP) were released by DPIIT, covering more areas of reform towards Ease of Doing Business. The Action Plan aims to lay out a series of reforms targeted at increasing transparency and efficiency of regulatory framework and services for businesses in India.

Ease of Doing Business Initiatives byWBPCB

The services covered under the Ease of Doing Business Initiatives from WBPCB include

Note: State Reform Action Plan (SRAP) 2020-21 consists of 301 reform points related to publishing updated information on the departmental portal, notifying exclusive use of online services & their timelines under the WBRTPS Act and having a dashboard for such online services in the public domain.

Steps taken by the WBPCBin compliance with Ease of Doing Business Reforms

The WBPCB has implemented the following reforms in compliance with Ease of Doing Business reforms.

• Reduce documentation burden for pollution clearance
• Simplifying the list of documents for all services and removal of physical touchpoints for submission of applications.
• Ensuring time-bound pollution clearances have been implemented by reducing the application processing timeline.
• Exemption of industries under ‘White’ and ‘Exempted’ categories from No clearance/consent process.
• Introducing auto-renewal of Consent to Operate based on self-certification/third-party certification has been implemented.
• Extending the validity period of CTE to 7 years and CTO to 7 years for the ‘Green’ category and five years for the ‘Orange’ & ‘Red’ categories.

• Implemented the online submission of returns through WB’s Online Consent Management and Monitoring (OCMMS) for the Industries/projects under the provisions of various Waste Management Rules.
• Introducing Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for inspection.
• Computerised risk assessment of industries and allocation of inspectors are being done.
• Online submission of inspection reports within 48 working hours has been introduced as a part of Ease of Doing Business.
• Integration with Online Central Inspection System (CIS) developed by Labour Department, the West Bengal government with the Labour Commissionerate, Factory Directorate, Boiler Inspector and Legal Metrology for high-risk (red category) establishment is in place.
• Process for online systems for the above services is integrated with the Single Window Portal of Silpasathi designed as a part of the Ease of Doing Business initiative.
• Published notification mandating that each draft business regulation is published online for at least 30 days before enactment to invite public comments/feedback and to publish the comments received and how they were addressed in the final regulation.

Simplified List of Documents Required for the CTE/ CTO services under the Ease of Doing Business initiative

Application processed by the DIC

CTE and CTO for other Establishment

Simplified List of Documents Required Authorisation related Services under the Ease of Doing Business initiative

Simplified List of Documents for Registration of Plastic related Businesses under the Ease of Doing Business initiative

Reduced Timeline for Faster Disposal of Applications under the Ease of Doing Business Initiative

Conclusion

West Bengal was ranked 9th in the country, implementing all 187 business reforms mandated under the State Business Action Reform Plan 2019-20. DPIIT recently launched the latest State Reform Action Plan (SRAP), 2020-21, for implementation by the States, which consists of 301 recommendations for reforms on regulatory processes, policies, practices and procedures classified into 15 Reform Areas. Seeing the previous performance of West Bengal towards simplifying the business setup process and the increased rate of application disposal, the present SRAP will further assist in EODB for new and upcoming projects. All these initiatives have surely provided the needed assistance from the state government’s end for new entrepreneurs. However, the other legalities of setting up a business still need to be complied with. Assistance in the licencing process through experts with a proven track record will surely aid in the speedy and hassle-free setup of a business in the state.