India likely to use PAN to ease entry to its National Single Window, Minister Goyal says

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal

India is likely to use the Income Tax Department’s Permanent Account Number, or PAN, as the entry point for its National Single Window System, Piyush Goyal, the minister for commerce and industry said on December 5.

“Going forward, states which wholeheartedly support the National Single Window System and speed up the approval process using the system will be given a better ease of doing business ranking,” Goyal told reporters in New Delhi.

India’s national single window seeks to be a one-stop digital platform for investors to obtain the most central and state approvals needed to start business operations.

The system, which kicked off with its first registration in September 2021, is now in the beta testing phase and will soon also integrate the renewal of existing licenses, according to the minister.

In the next stage, the government will also add more approvals to the platform, including those for inspections and country of origin as well as those to do with export promotion, he added.

The central government expects to bring on board all states that are not a part of the National Single Window System by March of next year.

Many large corporates, both domestic and foreign, have taken advantage of the National Single Window. These include Hindustan Petroleum, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Gail India, the Reliance Group, Adani Group, Tata Group, Ultratech Cement, Sun Pharma, Philips India, and Panasonic, according to a presentation by the department.

Applicants to the central government’s production-linked incentive schemes are being encouraged to come on to the single window, the minister said.