Govt working on setting up single window system for clearances: Goyal

New Delhi: The government is working on setting up a single-window system for clearances and approvals of industry, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said despite the presence of several IT platforms for investing in India such as in departments of the central government, and state single-window clearances, investors have to visit multiple platforms to gather information and obtain clearances from different stakeholders.

To address this, he said, the creation of a centralised investment clearance cell which would provide end-to-end facilitation support, including pre-investment advisory, information related to land banks and facilitating clearances at central and state level, was proposed.

“The government is working on setting up a Single Window System for clearances and approvals of the industry in the country,” he said.

He also said the cell is being planned as a one-stop digital platform to obtain all requisite central and state clearances/approvals to start business operations in India.

The investment clearance cell will be a national portal that integrates the existing clearance systems of various ministries/departments of the government and of states without disrupting the existing IT portals of ministries and will have a single, unified application form.

“This will eliminate the need for investors to visit multiple platforms/offices to gather information and obtain clearances from different stakeholders and provide time-bound approvals and real-time status update to investors,” Goyal said.

In a separate reply, he said representations alleging violation of laws by e-commerce companies, have been received.

“In this regard, representations received are being examined by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade and certain alleged contraventions under the FDI Policy, are also being investigated against certain e-commerce retail companies under provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 by the Directorate of Enforcement,” he said.

Further, he said several complaints against e-commerce entities, including related associate/holding companies, which are operating as marketplace platforms, online sellers/service providers, search engines service providers operating in different verticals etc, regarding anti-competitive behaviour, are being looked into by the Competition Commission of India.