GANDHINAGAR: Gujarat, known for its mercantile nature, was listed as ‘top achievers’ among all other states and union territories as announced by the Business Action Reform Plan (BARP) 2020. The report was released by the Union minister of finance Nirmala Sitharaman in presence of the Union minister of commerce Piyush Goyal.
Andhra Pradesh has topped the index with the maximum score while Gujarat has secured the second position with a score of over 90 per cent. The key point to be highlighted here is that Gujarat has registered a leap of eight positions from where it stood previously in the index.
Gujarat is among the two states that have shown 100 per cent implementation of the 301 reforms of DPIIT, the state government said in a release.
Talking about Gujarat’s huge feat, the state’s Chief Minister Bhupendra Singh Patel has said that the government is trying to provide ease in business by reducing the burden of regulatory compliance.
“Till now we have reduced more than 2,900 compliances which have made establishing business in the state easier and simpler. Ranking of Gujarat among the ‘top achievers’ in the BRAP 2020 report shows that we are moving ahead in the right direction,” said Patel.
Patel also said that the government is aiming to make the state the epicentre of the industrial sector in the domestic market as well as the global market.
“EoDB ranking is based on user feedback and focuses on the ground implementation of reforms in the state. The state government has introduced a star rating mechanism to get continuous feedback from applicants on IFP. This allows the government to address users’ concerns as well as improve existing systems and processes,” Rahul Gupta, Gujarat’s commissioner of industries, said.
According to the official statement, sectoral reforms have been introduced for the first time in BARP 2020 wherein 72 Reforms were identified across 9 sectors, namely, trade license, healthcare, legal metrology, cinema halls, hospitality, fire NOC, telecom, movie shooting and tourism.