CHENNAI: In a bid to climb up the Ease of Doing Business ranking ladder, the State government is planning to launch a portal that would provide 224 Government to Business (G2B) services upon a single click, said Tamil Nadu Guidance managing director and chief executive officer Neeraj Mittal.
Speaking at the Ease of Doing Business 2020 event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here, Mittal said that the State at present offers only 39 services spread across 14 departments under the business portal and it plans to add 188 more G2B services linking 37 other departments.
The new portal will have a provision to issue deemed approval for eight services as per the Tamil Nadu Business Facilitation Act, 2018. 46 of the services will go live by the end of this month and rest by May next year.
The State would also launch a land information portal, a construction permit portal and a common inspection portal in the coming months. The initiatives come as the State has climbed only a notch above its previous rating to reach the 14th spot, forcing officials to opt for digital transformation and paperless transactions.
The biggest challenge before the State was the single window portal as well as services by departments which were yet to go online. These include registration under legal metrology, weights and measures and change of land use. Similarly, end-to-end online services were not available for many departments. Another issue which affected the State’s ranking was the commercial court computerisation, which falls under the Madras High Court jurisdiction, and the digitisation of Records of Rights at the land records offices.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade had wanted the State to create a website, which will have all digitised land records and property tax payment data and align it with the revenue court case and civil court case data.
Interestingly, the comprehensive land information portal being worked out now will allow investors to access land transaction deeds at all sub-registrar offices, record of rights at all Revenue Department offices, property tax payment dues, revenue court case data, civil court case data, and electricity and water bill dues, among other things.
Similarly, a comprehensive construction permit portal is being developed by the Housing and Urban Development Department. This online single window system will grant planning permission and construction permit. The State has already launched an online industry help desk -- Tamil Nadu Biz Buddy -- for redressing investor grievances.
Industries Minister M C Sampath, who also spoke on the occasion, said that the Tamil Nadu Guidance has implemented a central inspection system by integrating the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health, Directorate of Labour and Directorate of Boilers. “During the Covid-19 months, the State government has signed 55 memoranda of understanding with an investment potential of `40,719 crore and creation of 70,000 jobs,” the minister added.