Officials in Tamil Nadu claim the change in the methodology of assessing States for business reforms was the cause for the State being placed in the 15th position, despite carrying out several measures such as the adoption of a business facilitation law.
On Tuesday, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry released findings of its study on business reforms for 2017.
According to the study, Tamil Nadu, which was ranked at 18 for 2016 with a score of 62.8%, was given the rank of 15 with 90.68%. Though its place had gone up by three this time, the State is still behind Andhra Pradesh and Telengana, ranked no. 1 and 2, and Karnataka, which is no. 8.
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Two factors
This time, the Central authorities ranked States on the basis of two factors — reform evidence scorecard and feedback scorecard. In respect of the first factor, Tamil Nadu’s score was 95.93 % and in the case of the second, 43.9%. According to a release of the DIPP, the deadline for provision of the feedback was August 31, 2017.
A senior official in the State Industries Department says online and information technology-enabled systems, belonging to other departments including the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health, were commissioned a few days prior to the deadline. This had influenced the State’s feedback scorecard.
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“Next year, we will be much better placed than what we are this time, as the provision for feedback is available for longer period of time,” the official observes.
Otherwise, the State has carried out most of what it has been mandated to. In areas concerning resolution of commercial disputes, the State has not been able to do much as the matter involves judiciary.
The official adds that the aspects such as uninterrupted power supply, quality of roads prevalent in a State and port connectivity had not been covered in the study.
In a statement, PMK founder S. Ramadoss said only when rampant corruption was eliminated in the implementation of industrial projects in the State, could it progress fast.