Reforms without bombast: Modi govt streamlines processes
Gopal Krishna Agarwal,
Modi Government in the last 10
years has initiated several steps to streamline processes, repeal redundant
laws and regulations and eliminate discretion.
An unfortunate consequence of this bias is a lack of
fair assessment of the many ways in which the Government is upending the
entrenched system of governance. Political corruption at the highest levels was
one of the most important issues in the run-up to the 2014 general elections.
With the Modi Government taking over the reins in
2014, that variant of corruption was eliminated. Laws and policies are no
longer made in return for kickbacks. However, the harassment and corruption at
lower-level causing difficulties to businesses and citizens is a different
animal altogether. Recognising the need
for a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach to tackle this menace, Modi
Government has initiated several measures.
Modi Government in the last 10 years has initiated
several steps to streamline processes, repeal redundant laws and regulations
and eliminate discretion. This has led to marked changes in the way citizens
interact with the bureaucracy. The threat of fastening criminal charges on
violations of laws, rules and regulations was a threat that facilitated easy
extraction of money from businesses.
Minor violations have now been decriminalised by the
government and violators can only be made to pay fines. The other area of
reform is the repeal of obsolete and redundant laws and regulations. Modi
government in last 11 years has repealed over 1500 laws and eliminated over
40,000 unnecessary compliances.
Government has tried to use technology and reduce
subjective discretion of administration, like in the case of GST reforms making
process of registration, filling of returns, assessment and refunds completely
online and simplifying the whole process. Direct Benefit Transfers to the
beneficiary accounts has removed leakages and corruption from the government
welfare schemes.
Single window online permission for businesses
through Udyog Mitra initiatives of active State governments is to bring
efficiency and reduce bureaucratic interference. Even in case of income tax, where
ordinary citizens might have to interact with the bureaucracy, the process has
been made completely virtual with E-assessment.
While issuing notice under the Income Tax Act, the
officer does not know who the notice/assessee is, and the latter does not need
to meet any officer to offer explanation, the process is anonymous. There is
significant development in the matters of income tax refunds and assessment,
which has now been made time bound.
Another such development took place in the recent
past. In the month of June 2025 Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) repealed
licensing regulations under section 28(1) of the Delhi Police Act, 1978, for
seven specific trades. These include hotels, motels, guest houses, restaurants
and eateries, discotheques, swimming pools, video game parlours, amusement
parks and auditoriums. Following this, Delhi Police on 28th June issued a
gazette notification implementing the directions of the LG with immediate
effect.
Indian bureaucracy has traditionally enjoyed much
power and discretion over daily lives of citizens- be it in their personal
space or in running government. This has manifested in arcane and overbearing
rules and regulations and the impulse to control outcomes. This power also
leads to rent seeking behaviour on part of the individuals in the bureaucratic
set-up. It is also typical of any individual or institution that once power,
privilege or discretion is enjoyed by it, it will fight tooth and nail to
preserve and protect its turf. Delhi Police, despite all its professionalism,
could not be assumed to have acted differently. Therefore, it goes to the
credit of its political boss, the Home Minister for pushing through this
reform.
All these efforts are in the right direction but
still business community has certain grievances calling for harassment. At
policy level lot of things have been achieved by the government, though there
is space at the implementation level. People with background in business and
finance with foot on the ground, in the implementation structure is sure to
bring more efficiency in governance.
An economy with regulatory cholesterol, finds it
difficult to compete with other dynamic economies in the international arena,
regulatory compliances add to the cost of doing business. It is one of the
major challenge for the manufacturing sector to be internationally competitive.
Therefore, Modi Government had made deregulation a major focus.
It has set up a Deregulation Commission for the
non-financial sector that will take a comprehensive view of all the regulations
and come up with recommendations. As the name itself suggests, the focus will
be on doing away with otiose regulations. A similar initiative for the
financial sectors is also in the pipeline. NextGen GST reform and Jan Vishwas
bill are sure to bring ease of doing business to the business community.
A series of such crucial reforms, minus the sound
and fury associated with the big measures, is imparting resilience to our
economy by making private enterprise more fruitful. The cumulative impact of
these steps is much more significant than only big steps that any government
might take. Modi Government has always believed that reform is a process and
not an event and its working shows deep commitment to this belief. The most
recent quarterly GDP growth of 7.8 per cent is a vindication of government’s
philosophy on reforms.
Gopal Krishna Agarwal
National Spokesperson of BJP
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