Focus on property registration in Ease of Doing Business push starting off with metropolitans

New Delhi: The government is working on improving the business climate, particularly ease of registering property, in Kolkata and Bengaluru because these two cities will be considered – along with Delhi and Mumbai – when the World Bank prepares its next Ease of Doing Business report.Officials at the departments of promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) and land resources held a meeting with officials of West Bengal, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Delhi last month to discuss various reform measures to improve ease of doing business, a senior government official said.74310310 “A meeting was held to review progress under ease of doing business — registering property in Delhi and Mumbai, and to take up initiatives on various reform measures in Kolkata and Bengaluru on priority,” the official said.The World Bank is due to release the Doing Business 2021 report in October.India’s position in the Ease of Doing Business Rankings for 2020 had improved 14 places to 63 among 190 countries. The country’s ranking on ease of registration of property parameter was a lowly 154, though better than the previous year’s 166.Hence the push to ease property registration.The idea is to digitise and integrate all records relating to titles or encumbrances and make data available on a single portal in Kolkata and Bengaluru, a second official said. “As part of the exercise to reduce number of procedures and time required, we are also working to create digitised land records, cadastral maps, municipal records and utility bills.”There is a plan to register and map all privately held land plots and define timelines for changes in cadastral maps and obtain record of rights under Public Service Delivery Guarantee Act to make it easier to register property in the two cities, the official said.To make it easier to register property, DPIIT and the land resources department are in talks for complete cadastral mapping of all plots, timely disposal of property disputes, and making statistics of land disputes public. An integrated portal for verification of title and encumbrances and a simultaneous action plan to enact Land Titling Bills for all the four cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bengaluru, are also being considered.This is part of the government’s action plan to make India break into top 50 in the World Bank's annual Ease of Doing Business ranking, which ranks countries on business environment based on ten parameters.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2PqlXsD