Ease of Doing Business: Budget 2018 outlines 372-point plan for states

New Delhi: To further improve ease of doing business, the government has identified 372 action points for states which they would carry out in a "mission mode", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said.

He said the Centre would evaluate the performance of states based on feedback from industry.

To take ease of doing business reforms deeper and in every state of India, "the government has identified 372 basic business reform actions," he said while presenting the Union Budget 2018-19.

The minister said each state will take up these reforms in a mission mode and would constructively compete with each other. Improvement in ease of doing business will help attract more investments and better business climate for investors.

Andhra Pradesh and Telangana jointly topped the 2016 all-India Ease of Doing Business rankings. The rankings were based on a 340-point business reform action plan and their implementation by the states. State governments are taking several steps to improve the business climate.

In the latest Ease of Doing Business report of the World Bank, India's position jumped 30 places to rank 100th among 190 nations.

The parameters that witnessed improvement in 2016-17 were India making it faster to start the business; reduction in procedures and time required to obtain a building permit; easier access to credit; protecting minority investors; ease of paying taxes; trading across borders; enforcing contracts and making resolving insolvency easier.

The government is targeting to be among top-50 countries in the overall ease of doing business rankings.