‘Labour Codes to take care of most compliance hassles’

About 70% of compliance-related hassles faced by businesses pertain to labour laws and will be resolved once States notify the four Labour Codes approved by Parliament, a top Industry Ministry official said on Wednesday.

The government has reduced 25,000 compliances in the past year but is conscious that many more need to be reduced to improve the ease-of-doing business, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Secretary Anurag Jain said. The department has examined reports of 27,000 laws under which persons can be jailed for doing business and is ready to engage with firms flagging such problem areas to resolve them.   

“On studying (them), we found that almost about 70% pertain to labour laws, for which the Parliament has enacted four Labour Codes to simplify these laws. So a major concern is already addressed, but we still need to work together to ensure that most of the States come on board and we are able to notify these changes,” Mr. Jain said at the annual conclave of the Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association.

Urging start-ups to register on the new single window clearance system which had a ‘soft launch’ in September 2021, Mr. Jain said that close to 1,000 approvals had already been granted through the system so far with one ‘end-to-end’ nod under the vehicle-scrappage policy.

“Till now, we have got 17,000-18,000 users on the portal… But I would like it to be in lakhs, in millions, I would ask all start-ups to apply in the national single window for their new ventures and whatever problems you come across, please share with us,” Mr. Jain said. As many as 21 Central government departments’ permissions have been integrated into the system with 15 States also coming on board so far.