In the last year or so, the state government has taken a slew of initiatives to make the ‘Make in Maharashtra’ campaign successful. The impact of these measures can be seen with the rise in investments in the state. Since November 1, 2014, the state has registered a seven -fold increase in assured industrial investments and employment generation. During this period, the state has received investment assurances of INR 72,325 crore with a promised creation of 75,904 jobs in 42 projects. Typically, it takes two to three years for these assurances to translate into reality, taking into account clearances, construction of units and recruitments.

1. Key Government Initiatives
towards Make in
Maharashtra
Part 3
'Make in India- Promoting
entrepreneurship & Innovation'

2. Key Government Initiatives
towards Make in Maharashtra
In the last year or so, the state government has taken a slew of initiatives to
make the ‘Make in Maharashtra’ campaign successful. The impact of these
measures can be seen with the rise in investments in the state. Since
November 1, 2014, the state has registered a seven -fold increase in assured
industrial investments and employment generation. During this period, the
state has received investment assurances of INR 72,325 crore with a promised
creation of 75,904 jobs in 42 projects. Typically, it takes two to three years for
these assurances to translate into reality, taking into account clearances,
construction of units and recruitments.

3. INTRODUCTION

4. Key Government Initiatives
towards Make in Maharashtra
The surge in investments in the state can largely be attributed to the several
initiatives of the state government including time -bound single -window
approvals with the total number of permissions reduced to 25 from 76, and
taking the entire industrial approval process online by forming a Maha e -Biz
platform. Besides, there are incentives like reimbursement of cost of water
and energy audit, subsidy on capital equipment for conserving water,
exemption in stamp and other duties and special investor after -care cell.

5. Key Government Initiatives
towards Make in Maharashtra
The state government has also introduced labour reforms like relaxing the
restriction on night duty for women in factories, increasing overtime limit for
employees from 50 hours a quarter to 100 hours, reducing the number of days
an employee needs to work to qualify for benefits like paid leave to 90 from 240.
Further, small companies (10 to 40 employees) which are exempt from filing
returns have been allowed to hire more people.

6. Key Government Initiatives
towards Make in Maharashtra
Other factors which have contributed to win investments in the state include
eased regulatory control, easy access to markets, reliable power supply,
quality infrastructure in industrial areas, land availability and good
connectivity to ports and airports.

7. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease
of doing business’
The initiatives taken by the state government under the ‘Make in
Maharashtra’ programme have been detailed below –
1. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease of doing business’ –
Rigid and inconsistent policies impede industrial growth. Simplified /
Transparent procedures/ policies, along with faster decision making
enable faster industrial development. Though Maharashtra has always
been a preferred destination for investors, it faced some issues in the
absence of ease of doing business due to its inconsistent policies,
bureaucratic delays and corruption. However, in the last one year, the
state government has attracted investment by changing several norms to
ensure ease of doing business in the State.

8. ‘Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease of
doing business’
Some of them have been detailed below –
a. Reduction in mandatory approvals/ permissions and inspections –
i. The State government has simplified the process of setting up business in
the state by reducing the number of regulatory approvals required. The
government has reduced the number of permissions required to start a
new business to 32 from the previous number of 76. The aim is to bring it
down to 25 eventually. More than 10 departments, including labour,
industries, revenue, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation
(MIDC), environment, and energy, are involved in the exercise to reduce
permissions and consents

9. The investor facilitation cell will provide
assistance to the foreign investors from the
time of their arrival in the country to the time
of their departure, with focus on green and
advanced manufacturing and helping these
companies to become an important part of the
global value chain. Key imperatives that have
been undertaken to make business process
efficient include --

10. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease
of doing business’
ii. In a recent move, the state government announced that once a potential
unit has the 15 mandatory clearances, the administration will have to clear
the project within 7 days. Under the new rule, once the approvals are in place
on 15 critical aspects related to land, environmental clearance, clarity of
finances, conformity with state labour laws, etc. the projects will not be kept
on hold and will be deemed to be approved.

11. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease
of doing business’
iii. Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has reduced the
number of permissions required from the corporation to set up industry
within its estates to 5 from 14. Apart from this, the state cabinet recently
amended the MIDC Act to ensure that the manufacturing units in the MIDC
areas do not require separate permissions from the local civic bodies once
they have secured an approval from MIDC. Under the earlier rules, the
industries had to seek approvals from Municipal Corporations apart from
MIDC, which led to delays and financial outgo. Furthermore, MIDC has
simplified procedure for Building plan approval, water supply connection,
approval to internal drainage plan, approval to drainage connection plan,
provision of fire NOC, CETP membership, power supply NOC etc.

12. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease of
doing business’
iv. Time taken for new electricity connection has been reduced from 67 days
to 15 days and number of procedures reduced from 7 to 3. The permissions
needed from municipal bodies to start industries have been reduced to 11
from 27, and the time taken to secure construction permits has come down
to just 50 days from the earlier 162.
v. Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has introduced Single
Window Clearance for construction permit with Building proposal
department as the Nodal Agency. Building Completion and occupancy
certificate are issued within 7 days from date of application. Construction
permit can be obtained in 60 days and number of procedures reduced to 11

13. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease of
doing business’
vi. In order to further ease of doing business in the state, the government
abolished the system of periodic inspections of industries by Maharashtra
Pollution Control Board (MPCB), that is, the government has removed the
powers of random inspection from inspectors of MPCB. In a major relief to
the industrial sector, the new rules provide, that only senior officials can
make a call on whether an industry needs to be inspected without notice or
not.

14. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease of
doing business’
b. Labor reforms –
i. Self-Certification scheme was introduced to reduce inspections by labor
department - In order to promote the ease of doing business, the
Maharashtra government announced this scheme, which permits factories
and shops to undertake self -certification pertaining to 16 labour laws. This
new scheme is expected to benefit nearly 35,000 factories and over 27 lakh
shops across the state, since it will drastically cut down on inspections by the
labour department. As per this scheme, labour inspections will be conducted
only once every five years.

15. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease of
doing business’
ii. The state government ha s made significant amendments to labor laws to
facilitate ease of doing business in the state. The state has done away with
the mandatory clearances required for manufacturing units to make laborers
work night shifts. Also, it has allowed women laborers to work night shifts. In
addition to this, the Factories Act has been amended to bring 14,300 small
units, employing about 1.90 lakh workers, outside the purview of the
Factories Act. The legislation has been relaxed and mandatory clearances for
units to allow workers to work overtime have been amended. Further, the
government is also working on a process to bring licensing and compliances
on the online platform

16. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease of
doing business’
c. Ease in land acquisition for industrial use –
i. The state government has eased the procedure for the conversion of
agricultural land to bona -fide industrial use. In this regard, the government
has set up facilitation committee that will certify that the land in question is
free of encumbrances. The state government has amended the Maharashtra
Land Revenue Code 1966 several times since 1994 to simplify the conversion
process. The amendments allowed bona fide industries to come up on
agricultural land and also on land within the industrial zone of a development
plan without seeking prior clearances for zone conversion. The district
collector merely had to be informed about the change of land use within 30
days. However, the developer had to provide a "self -assessment" that the
land was free of encumbrances.

17. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease of
doing business’
This includes certifying that the land would not come under acquisition, road
and irrigation projects or even face obstructions from high tension wires of
power projects. Based on the self-assessment submitted to the state, he
would get a "sanad" or certification from the government, a document which
eased the process of raising finances for the project. It was witnessed, that it
was very difficult for any developer to have knowledge of such government -
related encumbrances on land. In order to address this issue, the Industrial
Non -agricultural Use Facilitation committee has been formed which will
certify that the land faces no encumbrances

18. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease of
doing business’
The committee will be headed by the additional collector and will have
members from the departments including urban development, environment,
public works and irrigation. Once the committee clears the certification, the
project has to be given a ‘sanad’ or certification stating it is free of
encumbrances, within 60 days. Prior to this amendment, it would take a long
time for the government to grant this crucial clearance. Consequently, the
industries used to suffer as Banks were reluctant to sanction loans to them
without this document.

19. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease of
doing business’
ii. With a focus on creating a manufacturing hub in the state, the state has
allowed re -allotment of unused plots by MIDC to worthy entrepreneurs.
Recently, the MIDC took possession of 1,700 plots where no industries have
come up in the last 2 -5 years despite several extensions. These plots have
been re -allotted to the more deserving entrepreneurs in the MIDC’s waiting
list. MIDC has also defined a procedure for Land Allotment, with applicant
waiting list being published online
iii. The state government promotes partnerships between the domestic firms
and the foreign investors in the manufacturing sector. To facilitate this, the
state government allocates land to foreign manufacturers who invest in the
State in partnership with Indian companies.

20. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease of
doing business’
d. Favorable construction norms
i. The state government has eased construction norms for industries by
allowing horizontal expansion for areas under Maharashtra Industrial
Development Corporation (MIDC). As per the new norms, there is a relaxation
on the Ground Coverage Ratio (GCR) beyond the existing number of 0.5 for
industries. In addition to this, the state government has also enabled
industries on MIDC land to get additional Floor Space Index (FSI), which refers
to the permissible built -up area on a given plot of land. Apart from this, the
government has also decided to increase the Floor Space Index (FSI) from 0.2
to 1 for industries that are outside MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial
Development Corporation) areas. Furthermore, the state government has
also eased legislations so as to give more room for industries to acquire land
in non - Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) areas

21. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease of
doing business’
ii. In addition to relaxed FSI norms for industries, the state has also bestowed
more powers to the district collectors to sanction the additional FSI at their
level. The district collector has been allowed to sanction an additional FSI
from 0.1 to 0.9 so as to expedite the entire process of setting up industries in
the state.

22. Policy reforms to ensure ‘Ease of
doing business’
e. Reduction in power tariff
i. The government realizes that electricity charges play an important role in
the competitiveness of an industry. In a recent move, the state government
slashed power tariff for industries by 14%. In absolute terms, the tariff for the
industry has been reduced to INR 7.21 per unit from INR 8.41 per unit. This
step will make power more affordable and will attract fresh investments to
the State.

23. THANK YOU
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