THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI ASHWANI KUMAR)
(a) : Yes, Sir.
(b) : The World Bank has published a report on “Doing Business†in South-Asia for
the year 2007. Data in the above report pertain to years 2005-06. Doing Business in
South Asia 2007 is third in a series of regional Doing Business reports. “Doing
Business†report investigates the scope and manner of regulations that enhance
business activity and those that constrain it. New quantitative indicators on business
regulations and their enforcement have been compared across 8 countries in the region
and overtime, together with global best practices. Doing Business in South Asia builds
indicators for 12 cities in India, 6 in Pakistan and 4 in Bangladesh. In all, economies of 8
South Asian Countries, namely, Maldives, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India,
Bhutan and Afghanistan have been studied and ranking has been awarded keeping in
view of the ease/ constraints of Doing Business. The World Bank in its report has
evaluated the economic performance broadly based on 10 pa rameters.
Those parameters are as follows:
1. Starting of business
2. Dealing with licenses
3. Employing workers
4. Registering property
5. Getting credit
6. Protecting investors
7 Paying taxes
8. Trading across borders
9. Enforcing contracts
10. Closing a business
(c): Yes, Sir.
(d): The ranking as published by World Bank of South-Asian Countries is
as follows: Country’s Name Rank
1. Maldives 53
2. Pakistan 74
3. Bangladesh 83
4. Sri Lanka 89
5. Nepal 100
6. India 134
7 Bhutan 138
8. Afghanistan 162
(e) : The World Bank Report has compared the business practices amongst 12
Indian cities and they have been given ranking as listed below:
City Rank Hyderabad 1 Banglore 2 Jaipur 3 Chennai 4 Bhuvneswar 5 Lucknow 6 Chandigarh 7 New Delhi 8 Patna 9 Ranchi 10 Mumbai 11 Calcutta 12
(f) : Action to further improve the business environment in various cities has
been initiated and measures on various fronts are being taken as elaborated
below:
On line registration of companies initiated through MCA-21, on line registration
of Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and Employees Provident Fund
(EPF), obtaining Permanent Account Number (PAN) and Tax Account Number
(TAN) simultaneously through a single source, computerization of offices of Sub-
Registrar across States, abolition of Central Sales Tax (CST) by 2010, reduction of
documentation in case of import and export are some of the measures being
taken to improve business environment in the country.
