Govt Simplifies Startup Registration To Promote Ease Of Doing Business

As the Indian government envisions to take the country to the top 50 in the global Ease of Doing Business rankings, the ministry of corporate affairs has decided to simplify the registration process of startups.

In a notification, the ministry said that it is now notifying and deploying a new web form SPICe+, which will replace the existing SPICe registration form. This has been effective from February 23.

SPICe+ offers ten services by three central government ministries and departments (ministry of corporate affairs, ministry of labour & department of revenue in the ministry of finance) and a state government (Maharashtra), thereby saving much time and reducing the cost involved in starting a business in India. The new form would be applicable for all new company incorporations.

SPICe+ has two parts; Part A, for name reservation for new companies and Part B offering a bouquet of services such as incorporation, DIN, PAN etc. The startups also have an option to first file for name registration under Part A and then later on file for incorporation etc under Part B.

The ministry further said that a new and user-friendly dashboard on the Front Office is being created for company incorporation application. It also said that SPICe+ will facilitate on-screen filing and real-time data validation for the seamless incorporation of companies.

The approved name and related incorporation details as submitted in Part A would be automatically Pre-filled in all linked forms also viz., AGILE-PRO, eMoA, eAoA, URC1, INC-9 (as applicable).

Ease Of Doing Business Improves

India managed to improve its rank for EoDB from 77th position in 2019 to 63rd in 2020 as mentioned in World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report. The country has come a long way from just five years ago. In 2014, out of 190 countries that were listed under World Bank’s EoDB Index, India was in the 142nd spot.

India has shown significant improvement in the World Bank’s EoDB rankings, in the areas of starting a business, dealing with construction permits, resolving insolvency and trading across borders. Notably, India is among the best performers on the ease of doing business along with China, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Togo and Nigeria among others.

Currently, New Zealand tops the World Bank’s EoDB list, followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark, South Korea, US and Georgia among others.

More than anything, under ‘starting a business,’ areas, the government plans to integrate ESIC, EPFO, GST and professional tax with company registration under a single platform to simplify the deductions from companies.