Piyush Goyal calls for single ID for individuals and businesses combining Aadhaar, PAN

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal (File Image)

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has called for the creation of a single identification number for businesses and individuals by merging the several identification numbers that exist presently, such as Aadhaar, Permanent Account Number (PAN), and Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number (TAN), so that delivery of services becomes smoother and faster.

Speaking at the ‘National Workshop on the next phase of reforms to reduce Compliance Burden’ on December 22, Goyal said the government is now on the threshold of being able to make such big reforms that may reduce compliance burden significantly.

Case in point, Goyal stressed that more than 25,000 compliances have been reduced so far by the government through all the previous exercises implemented by the Centre to achieve ease of doing business.

The single identification number for individuals and businesses have been suggested earlier by policymakers but the idea had struggled to develop beyond initial discussions after it found little enthusiasm among businesses.

Focusing on technology as a solution, Goyal said that cutting edge tech must aid and abet government initiatives in this area, instead of further complicating the system of compliances.

The minister also spoke of the need to combine various services such as the Digi locker and National Single Window System, so that repetitive processes are rationalized, gaps are bridged and redundancies are eliminated when it comes to applying for approvals and permissions.

The minister also asked policymakers to consider the wide disparity in income, literacy level and the gaps in infrastructure, especially connectivity, while planning the delivery of services, especially if technology is involved.

Goyal also continued to state that is an urgent need to decriminalize Legal Metrology.

Monitoring progress

With regards to monitoring mechanism for major initiatives in the field, Goyal stressed that monitoring of policies and programs must not become more cumbersome than the underlying problem that the initiatives were seeking to solve. He urged policymakers to use crowdsourcing to find out details of the compliances that were proving to be cumbersome and work on rationalizing them.

"Grievance redressal mechanisms must be humane and sensitive. It is imperative that government departments handle the genuine grievances with a human face," said Anurag Jain, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). He opined that in cases where grievances cannot be fully resolved due to rules and procedural aspects, the same must be conveyed to the complainant sensitively.

Goyal also called for promotion of self- attestation, self- certification and self- regulation. "It is high time that compliance systems were built on trusting the integrity of the citizens," the Minister stressed.

Compliance burden

Goyal also urged political leadership, bureaucracy and industry leadership to focus their initiatives to reduce compliance burden, on principles of simplicity and timely delivery of services.

He spoke of the need to develop indigenous solutions to problems that India faced.

Calling for big ticket reforms, the minister said that the new structures must not shackle people. Underscoring the need to address information asymmetry among stakeholders, Goyal called for consolidation of the gains made so far in reducing compliance burden.

The ideas that took shape during the deliberations at the conference were presented to Shri Piyush Goyal and Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba.