AP CM’s Call For Easing Norms For Starting Industries
Permissions and licences should be restricted to a single digit, with no compromise on public safety, the environment, and other critical aspects, Naidu said.
Vijayawada: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has called for simplifying the procedures to help set up industries without any delay in Andhra Pradesh. He stressed the need to nullify “unwanted acts and norms.”
A delegation of officials from the central government led by steel secretary Sandeep Poundrik called on Naidu at the secretariat here on Monday. They discussed ‘Deregulation Phase-II’ aimed at simplifying and speeding up the procedures to set up industrial units.
AP officials gave a presentation on how the state government introduced a series of procedures to bring down the time for permission to set up industrial units.
Naidu inquired about the implementation of Deregulation Phases-I and the current status of Phase-II. The officials said that in Deregulation Phase-I, involving seven departments, implementation of 23 priority matters was completed. In Phase-II, 28 priority matters were listed. In total, 18 out of 47 recommendations were implemented while the remaining are to be implemented by March 31.
The chief minister underlined the importance of reducing the complexities in getting permits for setting up industrial units. He called for accelerating the process and stressed that the officials must work towards withdrawal of British era acts.
He called for reducing the number of norms to 100 from the present 800.
Naidu laid stress on making efforts to reduce the licences for permissions to single digit (less than 10) to set up industrial units. However, the government, he said, cannot compromise on people’s safety and environmental protection while giving permission for industrial units.
The chief minister recommended priority for third party inspections at the industrial units for compliance with safety norms and to avoid the double licensing system. “Once a registration is done, it should be lasting till the lifetime for the entity to continue the business,” he said.
On fire safety, Naidu asked the officials to implement AP’s convenient and simplified norms in the place of national building code and stated that, from the stage of application to getting permission, all the procedures should be available online.
He called for an action plan to ensure that the time needed to set up industrial units should be reduced to 40 per cent after implementation of Deregulation Phase-II.
Moreover, Naidu directed the officials to bring in all the requisite ordinances for implementation of Deregulation Phase-II. He noted that 82 types of permissions were needed to set up industrial units or to take up business. This, he said, must be reduced to 57. The number of permission like building plan approvals, occupancy certificates totaling 30, should be brought down to 18.
Officials, he said, must strengthen land allotment procedures related to the investors, and this must be taken up in an expeditious manner. They must also simplify the procedures for usage of the land in the industrial parks and in the clusters.
The chief minister called for working out on a proposal of entrusting the task of giving all requisite permissions to a single nodal agency. He asked officials to accord priority to simplifying the procedures to get permissions in sectors like fire services, environment, power, tourism, education and health.
Naidu also asked the officials to work out modalities to facilitate starting a business venture based on submission of an affidavit. “We must bring in reforms to reduce the practice of periodical inspection. The aim is to create a congenial atmosphere for investors.
The CM called for digitalisation of the whose exercise relating to grant of permissions -- from the stage of application to sanction of permission. Facilities like Mee Seva, Single Desk Portal, WhatsApp Governance (Mana Mitra) etc must be of help to the people and the businessmen or traders by enabling easy access.
Meanwhile, Union steel secretary Sandeep Poundrik lauded the AP government for working in a better way to implement Deregulation Phase-II.
Naidu explained to the central delegation that the state government had transformed the initiative of ‘Ease of Doing Business’ to ‘Speed of Doing Business’ and suggested to the delegation to simplify old laws.
When Naidu asked whether the central government started implementing ‘Deregulation Phase-III’, the Union steel secretary replied that they would start it from June. The CM suggested to him to take the help of new technology like AI. They replied to him that they were already using the high-end technology like Data Lake, Real Time Data, CFMS, Aware 2.0 and WhatsApp Governance.
