India Inc has hailed the government’s move to extend the validity period of industrial licence to three years with a provision for further extension of two years as a measure for ease of doing business in India.
A press note issued by the commerce and industry ministry on Wednesday said : “In supersession of all earlier press notes, the period of validity of industrial licence is being extended from two years to three years as a measure for ease of doing business.”
Reacting to the move, industry body CII said the government’s decision sends a strong signal that it is committed to enhance the ease of doing business in India. “We hope that this would help in expeditious clearance of fresh industrial license applications and the extension of the existing industrial licenses,” CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee said.
However, in the absence of commencement of commercial production, the licence will lapse automatically after five years, the note said. “Renewal of licence would be allowed for a period of two years. Any industrial licence, wherein commercial production has not started within a period of five years of issue of licence, will be treated as automatically lapsed,” it added.