Chandigarh, November 25: The Department of Industries and Commerce, Government of Punjab in partnership with Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) has launched a 2-month long MSME Registration Drive under the Right to Business Act, 2020.
Disclosing this here today, the spokesperson of the Industries department said that the drive launched during the Global Entrepreneurship Week last week from the Ludhiana district and will gradually be expand across Punjab. A webinar was held on the occasion with key stakeholders including industry associations, prominent entrepreneurs, NGOs, think tanks to inform them about the provisions and processes for in-principle approval and deemed approval under the Right to Business Act, the spokesperson added.
The Government of Punjab recently notified the Right to Business Act, which offers an easy process of self-declaration for newly incorporated MSMEs and exempts them from certain approvals and inspections needed to establish and operate in the state for a period of 3.5 years.
Elaborating further, the spokesperson added that the Act provides for a District Bureau of Enterprise (DBE) in each district, under the overall superintendence, direction and control of the State Government and the State Nodal Agency. The DBE is headed by the Deputy Commissioner as CEO and General Manager of the District Industries Centre (DIC) as Additional CEO, with other members to be notified by the Government from time to time.
The DBE maintains a record of ‘Declaration of Intent’ received, and issues ‘certificate of In-Principle Approval’ under the Act within 3 working days in approved industrial parks and within 15 working days outside the approved industrial parks, as per the recommendations of Scrutiny Committee. After the approval, a new MSME unit will be able to start its project immediately and may apply for Regulatory Approvals within three and half years from the issuance of ‘Certificate of In-Principle Approval’.
The launch webinar was held under the chairpersonship of Mr. Alok Shekhar, Principal Secretary, Department of Industries and Commerce. Mr. Shekhar expressed that the Right to Business Act is aimed at easing the regulatory burden on newly incorporated MSMEs by providing enabling provision of self-declaration and also exempting them from certain approvals and inspections for establishment and operations of MSMEs in the state.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Sibin C., Director, Department of Industries and Commerce present in the webinar and laid great importance on the concerns, feedback and suggestions from the entrepreneurs and industry associations. He expressed the willingness and agility of the Department to integrate and evolve as per the needs of the growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in Punjab.
So far 2 entrepreneurs from Patiala and SAS Nagar have successfully registered their enterprises under the Right to Business Act within record 13 and 10 working days respectively. The Department is deeply committed in the implementation of the bold reforms notified under the Act and invited commitments from the stakeholders to spread the word on the provisions of the Act across their member bodies and entrepreneurial networks.
The webinar saw attendance and participation from Mr. Upkar Singh Ahuja (CICU), Mr. Badishk Jindal (Federation of Punjab Small Industries Associations), Mr. Manjit Singh Matharoo, (FICO Megha Machine Tool Cluster of Ludhiana), Gurmit Singh Kular (FICO), Charanjiv Singh and Vinod Thapar (Knitwear & Textile Hub), Ashok Makkar (Punjab Dyers’ Association), Jeevan Gopisetty (NEMO), Rishi Agarwal (Avantis Regtech), Prashant Narang (Centre for Civil Society), Swati Murali (Haqdarshak) to name a few.
