After washout of two consecutive parliament sessions, much hope was laid on the passage of goods and service tax (GST) in this monsoon session. After years of discussion, GST was finally given a clearance in the Rajya Sabha. Implementation of GST is expected to add 1-2% to gross domestic product (GDP) growth every year on a sustainable basis.
Recent clearance of Real Estate Bill, The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and now GST indicates that reforms are gradually taking place at the central level. However, for those reforms which aren't seeing the light of the day such as Land Acquisition and Labour Laws, the state governments are undertaking the same.
Recently, Gujarat state government amended its Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Act. The government eliminated the requirement of a social impact assessment and consent clause for certain types of development projects. Further, the government also issued the IT and Electronics Start-up Policy. Beneath the policy, the government intends to fund 50% of the cost of establishing an incubator. The policy also offers various types of direct financial assistance to start-ups.
The government of Uttar Pradesh too approved the Uttar Pradesh Information Technology & Start-Up Policy 2016. The policy aims to waive taxes on land purchased for office use and on built-up offices, as well as electricity dues for five years.
Not only this, the government of Karnataka relaxed its labour laws and announced a new retail trade policy that allowed establishments to be open longer and allowed women to work at night.
Lots of developments are taking place at the state level in order to attract investments in their respective states. Further, NITI Aayog is expected to come out with an exhaustive survey of state business regulations.
As the states wants to attract higher investments for their enrichment, it will be interesting to see how states enact the sensible pro-business regulations going forward.
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