In the recent World Bank rankings Gujarat was declared as leading state of India as far as ease of doing business was concerned. All states were accessed on a 98 point reforms agenda by the World Bank and Gujarat scored around 70% which enabled them to top the table. Goa finished a distant 19th with a score of around 20%, clearly exposing some of the government’s claim that Goa is one of the leading states of India, at least it was not on this parameter.
Gujarat meanwhile need not be so thrilled with their performance, because India as a country is still ranked a lowly 130th. However, India has started addressing the issues that make us languish at the bottom, but the results will take time to show. A small progress in the ranking by 4 points from last year ranking has keyed up the Central government of a trend reversal, but they fully understand that a 4 points increase is still a long way away to make it to the top 20 countries. It is now rightly taking services of a Singapore-based Institute to come out with a study on ease of doing business, which should give its report by the end of this year.
By the way Singapore is ranked first as a country for ease of doing business for quite some time now, followed by New Zealand and Denmark. To be fair to India, all these countries are smaller in size and therefore easy to monitor and manage perhaps, but then United States is ranked 7th, so size cannot really be an excuse to remain at the bottom of the table, definitely not 130th. A country that is seeking a permanent seat at the UN Security Council and is also a part of the G20 countries and aims to be one of the leading world economies in the future, surely does not deserve to be so low on ease of doing business rankings. It only proves the determination of the Indian entrepreneur to succeed against all odds and overcome the challenges the system throws at them on a daily basis.
Since this article is Goa centric, let’s keep the India story aside, because at least they have acknowledged the fact and are seen to be doing something on the ground to improve the rankings. One of their actions is creating state-wise competition by starting the state ranking system on ease of doing business to be reviewed on a yearly basis in collaboration with the World Bank. It is on this parameter that Goa ranked a pathetic 19th will have to decide if they sincerely wish to improve their rankings, because any work towards improving these rankings will slowly but surely result in loosening of the grip politicians and government officials have on Goan businessmen. Since the general Goan population is not going to vote for them on this parameter, chances are that they will push this statistic in the backburner and possibly even try and hide it, especially if it going to result into less control over the business fraternity.
Successive governments over the years have yielded control over Goans in the form of placing obstacles, as much as possible with the primary goal that nothing is to be given easily to the public. While some control mechanism is necessary, it makes sense only when the rules are very clear and not vague in nature, that it makes even the educated and smart scratch their heads. Problem with vague rules are that they are subject to different interpretation and used as a tool to harass legitimate businesses. It is this fear that has practically muted most Goan businessmen from criticizing government policies as freely as perhaps a Narayan Murthy, Deepak Parekh or a Rahul Bajaj, not forgetting many vocal business owners from Bangalore.
Ease of doing business does not mean that you only simplify the procedures to open new businesses and then put in place a complicated mechanism for simple procedures like taking approvals or renewals in the normal course of business. It only leads to greasing of palms on the way and once that takes place than the businessman also gets habituated to perform illegalities since by now he has already befriended the guy whom he paid earlier to clear his legitimate work. If money can change hands for legitimate work then why not pay and get the illegitimate work done also.
A thorough overhaul of procedures and control mechanism needs to be done on an urgent basis. Unfortunately Goans have developed a fascination to venture into businesses which needs maximum controls. Controls needed for the mining or the gambling industry might not be necessary for other businesses. It is time we separate businesses which pollute the environment or degrade the society, initiate maximum controls on them and leave rest of the businesses to thrive and prosper.
If procedures are streamlined and we do improve the rankings on ease of doing business it will have no meaning if government officials that took care of these procedures are not given that golden handshake. While the Citizen / Government workers ratio in India is still quite low compared to United States, naturally same will be the case for Goa, but then government workers in the United States are employed to serve its citizens and are held accountable for any lapse. Same is not the case in Goa.
(The writer is a Business consultant)
