Assam slowest in ease of doing of business

GUWAHATI: A NITI Aayog-IDFC Institute joint survey to find out whether the ease of doing business in India was actually making life easier for the manufacturing business has brought out the sorry state of affairs in Assam.
It’s not just the sluggish process to get land permits, environment clearance and labour permits to set up a business in the state, the slowest in the country, there isn’t enough power supply to keep the manufacturing units running without power cuts.
The report based on an enterprise survey of over 3,200 post-2014 companies in the manufacturing sector across all states, shows that while the average time taken to set up a business in India was 118 days, it took 63 days in Tamil Nadu, 67 days in Andhra Pradesh and 248 days in Assam.
The country’s average number of days for getting construction permit was 112 days. While it takes around 41 days in Madhya Pradesh and 43 days in Bihar, it would take 270 days in Assam to get the permits.
Similarly, the average time taken for labour approvals and renewals ranges was found to be 74 for the country, it takes on average 103 days in Assam and Goa to get all labour related permits but only 20 days in Himachal Pradesh and 28 days in Chhattisgarh.
The survey found that the average hours of power shortage per month faced by enterprises are around 46 hours in the country. In Assam, the average duration of power shortage in a month was 156 hours, and in Bihar it was 139 hours while firms in West Bengal faced the least power shortage at 11 hours, followed by Delhi at 13 hours.
The report also expressed surprise at finding that the awareness among enterprises about single window systems, instituted by states, is low. On average, only about 20% of start-ups, which are of recent origin, report using single window facilities introduced by state governments for setting up a business. Even among experts, only 41% have any knowledge of the existence of these facilities.
In Bihar, Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Uttarakhand none of the enterprises reported having any legal disputes.