India jumps 129 spots in granting construction permits
India’s improvement from 100 to 77 position in World Bank's Ease of Doing Business ranking released on October 31 was made possible due to improvement in granting of construction permits where it has moved to 52nd position this year from 181, said real estate experts. In its annual report 'Doing Business' 2019 report, World Bank said India improved on six of the 10 parameters relating to starting and doing business in a country. India jumped 23 places to the 77th position in the ranking. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said India can get into top 50 if it improves on time taken for registering real estate, starting business, insolvency and taxation and enforcement of contracts. "What is particularly satisfying is that as business reforms agenda in area of construction permits percolates down from state to district level, we have moved a whopping 129 places to rank at 52 from 181 last year in the same World Bank Report," tweeted housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri. Real estate body Credai said that while there is an improvement, there is a long way to go to sustain momentum and that the government should expedite implementation of the single window clearances mechanism. "We acknowledge the on-going efforts of the government to tackle the pressing administrative roadblocks in the Indian real estate sector, as reflected in the improvement in ranking by 129 ranks in 'Dealing with Construction Permits' in World Bank’s 'Ease of Doing Business' report. We, at CREDAI, however, believe that there is still a long way to go in order to sustain this momentum; and the government should expedite implementation of the single window clearances to accelerate the revival of Indian real estate," said Jaxay Shah, President, CREDAI National. Anshul Jain, Country Head & Managing Director, Cushman & Wakefield India, said that for the real estate sector the reforms initiated in the form single window clearance in Delhi and online building permit system in Mumbai along with similar reforms being undertaken by other states bodes well for domestic developers with the commercial markets doing exceedingly well even as the residential sector continues its slow journey towards recovery. Improvement in credit points towards the fact that new startups and the SME sectors have been able to access structured finance better through financial inclusion and an improved credit cycle. "With the new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code in 2018, we expect India’s rankings to improve even further in the next edition. We also expect more improvements in contract enforcement and property registrations as these are critical for business investments and protection of ownership rights," he said.
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