Centre makes business easy

New Delhi: Government decided to extend the validity period of industrial licence to three years with a provision for further extension of two years in an attempt to enhance ease of doing business in the country.

Amid reports that India may be further downgraded in World Bank’s list on “ease of doing business”, government is taking measures to reduce red tapism and unshackle business from un-necessary bureaucratic procedures.

“In suppression of all earlier Press Notes, the period of validity of industrial licence is being extended from two years to three years as a measure for ease of doing business,” said industry ministry’s press note.

However, the licence will lapse automatically after five years in absence of commercial production. “Renewal of licence would be allowed for a period of two years. Any industrial licence, wherein commercial production has not started within five years of issue of licence, will be treated as automatically lapsed,” it added.

The Press Note said that in case the firm fails to start production of items within three years of issue of licence, the application for extension of licence should be submitted to the concerned administrative ministry, 60 days prior to the expiry of three years period.

Industry bodies welcomed this initiative “It is good to see that for the extension of industrial license the companies are not required to go back to the licensing committee,” Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII.

SEZ benefits for Indo-China biz park

India has agreed to extend the benefits of special economic zones (SEZ) and National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ) to the proposed industrial parks which would be developed in collaboration with China. During the recent visit of V-P Hamid Ansari to Beijing, India and China signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the creation of industrial parks.