CII Urges Legislation for Time-Bound Services from Central Ministries to Businesses

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has called for the enactment of a central legislation to guarantee time-bound delivery of services to businesses by Union Ministries and Departments.

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This reform, CII stated, is crucial for strengthening regulatory certainty, enhancing predictability and improving the overall ease of doing business in India.

Despite commendable initiatives to mandate timelines in a range of areas, businesses continue to face procedural delays, regulatory uncertainty and non-adherence to timelines, significantly affecting operational efficiency and long-term investment planning. Absence of strictly enforced timelines is also felt in areas such as government refunds, disbursement of funds and subsidies, and raising claims by government departments on returns filed by businesses, which often causes cash flow disruptions and adds to compliance burden and uncertainty," said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII.

A key challenge remains the uncertainty on timelines for approval, which creates delays and cascading costs. Addressing this issue would strengthen confidence and support more timely and predictable service delivery, the industry body added. While most Indian states have enacted their own Right to Services or Public Services Guarantee Acts, which ensure timely delivery of specified public services to citizens, no such central legislation exists to ensure timely service delivery by Central Ministries.