The Government has been continuously working towards improving the ease of doing business across the country. The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitely, while presenting the General Budget 2018-19 in Parliament today said that the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has always stressed the importance of good governance with the vision of “Minimum Government and Maximum Governance”. This vision has inspired Government agencies to carry out hundreds of reforms in policies, rules and procedures. This transformation is reflected in improvement of India’s ranking by 42 places in last three years in the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ with India breaking into top 100 for the first time.
The Finance Minister stated that to carry the business reforms for ease of doing business deeper and in every State of India, the Government of India has identified 372 specific business reform actions. All States have taken up these reforms and simplifications in a mission mode constructively competing with each other. Evaluation of performance under this Programme will now be based on user feedback.
The Finance Minister announced that the Department of Commerce will be developing a National Logistics Portal as a single window online market place to link all stakeholders.
Shri Jaitely stated that the Government is transforming method of disposal of its business by introduction of e-office and other e-governance initiatives in central Ministries and Departments. A web-based Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), is being administered by Controller General of Accounts, for budgeting, accounting, expenditure and cash management of the Government.
A Central Public Procurement Portal provides a single point access for all information on procurement. Around 3.5 lakh contractors and vendors are registered on this platform. In November, 2017 alone, electronic bids for over one lakh tenders valued at around two lakh forty thousand crore were invited through this portal.
The Government E-Marketplace (GeM) facilitates procurement at the right price, in right quality and quantity in a transparent and efficient manner. The platform has seventy eight thousand buyers, fifty thousand sellers, three lakh seventy five thousand products and twelve services. Besides facilitating transaction of the value of Rs.3000 crore in about two lakh transactions, it could achieve savings of more than 25% over the base price.
For easier access, links to all Detailed Demand for Grants will be provided at india.gov.in. The Government will also consider feasibility of providing disclosed fiscal information in a machine readable form.
