Ease compliance burden for investors, PM Modi advises states

NEW DELHI: Heed investor feedback and focus on easing the compliance burden as tax benefits and free land alone are not sufficient to attract investment. This was the strong message from PM Narendra Modi to states during the governing council meeting of Niti Aayog on Thursday as he sought to position India as an attractive investment destination with strong economic fundamentals amid challenges in several economies. His warning was rooted in the experience of overseas investors, who want to invest but have been high compliance burden in some of the states.Addressing a press conference, Niti Aayog vice-chairman Ashok Lahiri said PM urged states and UTs to turn India into a big investment destination. An official statement said states were urged to attract investments from partner countries.Niti Aayog vice-chairman Ashok Lahiri said, “For ease of doing business, states were asked to identify the trouble spots and address them.” Niti Aayog member Rajiv Gauba said PM’s focus of easier regime should go up to the city-level. Besides, those privy to the discussions told TOI that the PM underlined the need to ensure that reforms go beyond announcements and are actually implemented.They said PM Modi reiterated the need to ensure that services were available to citizens easily and that they should not be required to visit govt offices, while urging states to compete on this count and asking Niti to devise strategies to address the issue. Lahiri said that another focus area was on rapid grievance redressal.Given the current challenges, especially on the energy front, Union govt and states discussed how to make energy prices competitive, while ensuring its availability. Discussions to step up efforts on solar energy, biogas as well as a reference to the private sector being allowed into the nuclear energy space at the meeting was seen as an effort to cut reliance on fossil fuel.Responding to a question on the ongoing crisis in West Asia and energy security, Lahiri said: “You can’t change the wind, you can only trim your sails. Just because the West Asia crisis is there, we can’t be paralysed. We have to keep doing our work, and that is what is happening.”