Reforms without bombast: Modi govt streamlines processes

When, it comes to economic reforms, in our obsession to look for big-bang, news-worthy headlines we tend to miss out on seemingly smaller developments. Media and the chatterati look for hotly contested issues, where passions run high and the political economy of the country makes progress very challenging. An unfortunate consequence of this bias is a lack of fair assessment of the many ways in which the Government is upending the entrenched system of governance. Political corruption at the highest levels was one of the most important issues in the run-up to the 2014 general elections. With the Modi Government taking over the reins in 2014, that variant of corruption was eliminated. Laws and policies are no longer made in return for kickbacks. However, the harassment and corruption at lower-level causing difficulties to businesses and citizens is a different animal altogether. Recognising the need for a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach to tackle this menace, Modi Government has initiated several measures.Modi Government in the last 10 years has initiated several steps to streamline processes, repeal redundant laws and regulations and eliminate discretion. This has led to marked changes in the way citizens interact with the bureaucracy. The threat of fastening criminal charges on violations of laws, rules and regulations was a threat that facilitated easy extraction of money from businesses. Minor violations have now been decriminalised by the government and violators can only be made to pay fines. The other area of reform is the repeal of obsolete and redundant laws and regulations. Modi government in last 11 years has repealed over 1500 laws and eliminated over 40,000 unnecessary compliances.Government has tried to use technology and reduce subjective discretion of administration, like in the case of GST reforms making process of registration, filling of returns, assessment and refunds completely online and simplifying the whole process. Direct Benefit Transfers to the beneficiary accounts has removed leakages and corruption from the government welfare schemes. Single window online permission for businesses through Udyog Mitra initiatives of active State governments is to bring efficiency and reduce bureaucratic interference. Even in case of income tax, where ordinary citizens might have to interact with the bureaucracy, the process has been made completely virtual with E-assessment. While issuing notice under the Income Tax Act, the officer does not know who the notice/assessee is, and the latter does not need to meet any officer to offer explanation, the process is anonymous. There is significant development in the matters of income tax refunds and assessment, which has now been made time bound.Another such development took place in the recent past. In the month of June 2025 Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) repealed licensing regulations under section 28(1) of the Delhi Police Act, 1978, for seven specific trades. These include hotels, motels, guest houses, restaurants and eateries, discotheques, swimming pools, video game parlours, amusement parks and auditoriums. Following this, Delhi Police on 28th June issued a gazette notification implementing the directions of the LG with immediate effect.Indian bureaucracy has traditionally enjoyed much power and discretion over daily lives of citizens- be it in their personal space or in running government. This has manifested in arcane and overbearing rules and regulations and the impulse to control outcomes. This power also leads to rent seeking behaviour on part of the individuals in the bureaucratic set-up. It is also typical of any individual or institution that once power, privilege or discretion is enjoyed by it, it will fight tooth and nail to preserve and protect its turf. Delhi Police, despite all its professionalism, could not be assumed to have acted differently. Therefore, it goes to the credit of its political boss, the Home Minister for pushing through this reform.All these efforts are in the right direction but still business community has certain grievances calling for harassment. At policy level lot of things have been achieved by the government, though there is space at the implementation level. People with background in business and finance with foot on the ground, in the implementation structure is sure to bring more efficiency in governance. An economy with regulatory cholesterol, finds it difficult to compete with other dynamic economies in the international arena, regulatory compliances add to the cost of doing business. It is one of the major challenge for the manufacturing sector to be internationally competitive. Therefore, Modi Government had made deregulation a major focus. It has set up a Deregulation Commission for the non-financial sector that will take a comprehensive view of all the regulations and come up with recommendations. As the name itself suggests, the focus will be on doing away with otiose regulations. A similar initiative for the financial sectors is also in the pipeline. NextGen GST reform and Jan Vishwas bill are sure to bring ease of doing business to the business community.A series of such crucial reforms, minus the sound and fury associated with the big measures, is imparting resilience to our economy by making private enterprise more fruitful. The cumulative impact of these steps is much more significant than only big steps that any government might take. Modi Government has always believed that reform is a process and not an event and its working shows deep commitment to this belief. The most recent quarterly GDP growth of 7.8 per cent is a vindication of government’s philosophy on reforms.Gopal Krishna Agarwal National Spokesperson of BJP



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