Buddha’s Bengal lags behind Modi’s Gujarat

It takes 105 days to get and register a property in Bengal, as against 35 days in Andhra Pradesh, 15 days in Maharastra, two days in Karnataka and just a day in Gujarat.

When it comes to total number of mandays required to complete the process of setting up an industry, only Orissa is behind West Bengal. For Bengal, it is 317 days, while for Karnataka it is 113, Andhra Pradesh 261, Gujarat 116 and for Maharashtra, it’s 270 days.

A survey has been done by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) on “Single Window Investment Facilitation: Status in some Indian states” among the six representative states. It suggests that except Orissa, West Bengal is lagging in almost every aspect when it comes to provide better investment environment.

The survey takes into account comparison of total mandays required to set up a business, conversion ratio of MoUs into actual units and investment per unit that ICC
calls as Investment per Industrial Entrepreneurs Memorandum.

An entrepresenur, after completing the registration requirements, will take 40 days to start his business in Bengal. In Andhra Pradesh, it takes 43 days, Gujarat 33 days, Maharashtra 35 days and in Karnataka, just 28 days.

However, the conversion ratio of Industrial entrepreneurs memorandum (IEM) has something positive to offer for Bengal. In this respect, the state is just second to Gujarat.

But as ICC president Harsh K Jha points out, though the state is ahead of others in conversion of memorandums, the investment per IEM is less than most of the representative states.

So while Bengal’s average investment per IEM is Rs 12.55 crore, for Gujarat it is Rs 85.24 crore, Karnataka Rs 20.36 crore and Maharastra Rs 17.4 crore. Only Andhra Pradesh, with an average of Rs 12.33 crore, and Orissa with Rs 7.4 crore, are behind West Bengal.

“This means West Bengal is not attracting large projects and the land could be an issue,” said Jha.