Rajasthan has become the sixth state in the country to successfully undertake “Ease of Doing Business” reform stipulated by the Ministry of Finance, said an official statement on Saturday (26 December).

After undertaking the reform, Rajasthan has been given the permission by the Finance Ministry to mobilise additional financial resources of Rs 2,731 crore through Open Market Borrowings.

Rajasthan has now joined the five other States namely, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, who have completed the reforms.

On completion of reforms facilitating ease of doing business, these six states have been granted additional borrowing permission of Rs 19,459 crore, the statement said.

The ease of doing business is an important indicator of the investment friendly business climate in the country. Improvements in the ease of doing business will enable faster future growth of the state economy. Therefore, the government had in May 2020, decided to link grant of additional borrowing permissions to states who undertake the reforms to facilitate ease of doing business, it said.

The reforms stipulated in 'Ease of Doing Business' category by the ministry included completion of first assessment of ‘District Level Business Reform Action Plan’ and elimination of the requirements of renewal of registration certificates, approvals, licences obtained by businesses under various Acts.

In view of the resource requirement to meet the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the government had on 17 May 2020 enhanced the borrowing limit of the States by 2 per cent of their GSDP.

Half of this special dispensation was linked to undertaking citizen centric reforms by the states. The four citizen centric areas for reforms identified were Implementation of One Nation One Ration Card System, Ease of doing business reform, Urban Local body and utility reforms, and Power Sector reforms.

So far, ten states have implemented the One Nation One Ration Card System, six states have done ease of doing business reforms, and two states have done local body reforms, it said.

Total additional borrowing permission issued so far to the states who have done the reforms stands at Rs 50,253 crore, the statement added.

EoDB reforms

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