Jan Vishwas Bill furthering trust-based governance by rationalizing criminal provisions: Piyush Goyal

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal

The Jan Vishwas Bill contributes to rationalizing criminal provisions and ensuring that citizens, businesses and government departments operate without fear of imprisonment for minor, technical or procedural defaults, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said addressing a gathering at the DPIIT - CII National Conference on Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) held in New Delhi on November 8.

Commenting on how the government has worked on increasing the Ease of Business in the country, the minister said, "There is no law like the Jan Vishwas in the history of India."

He added, “Jan Vishwas Bill contributes to rationalizing criminal provisions and ensuring that citizens, businesses, and the Government departments operate without fear of imprisonment for minor, technical or procedural defaults. It furthers trust-based governance and promotes EoDB.”

Goyal observed that industry has supported the national initiative of ease of doing business and the Government is working to take ease of doing business to the next level, see and monitor its impact on the ground and come up with a roadmap which is continuously evolving. He stated that this is a continuous process, and inputs from industry on a continuous basis are required.

He urged businesses to make use of the National Single Window System and suggest gaps and measures to improve it.

"If industry comes up with a proposal on reporting or self-certification of businesses, and if the said businesses are consistently not defaulting, they can get some relaxations in compliances. We can bring this into action for a year in the first phase, hypothetically," he said.

“Today we are living in an opportune moment and it is India's time. We have moved from Fragile 5 to top 5 economy in the last 5 years. We are the fastest growing large economy in the world and in Prime Minister Modi’s commitment to make India a developed nation by 2047, he has made available the building blocks by providing strong macroeconomic fundamentals and large-scale investments," the minister said.

As per the him, the ministry is trying to ease norms for Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and make it simpler for units to exit these areas.

A Special Economic Zone or SEZ is a specially marked territory or enclave within the national borders of a country that has more liberal economic laws than the rest of the country.