In a statement, the Ministry said that four other states, namely Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, have begun reforms of the Ease of Doing Business, as stipulated by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance.
"Thus, these States have become eligible to mobilize additional financial resources and have been granted permission to raise additional Rs 5,034 crore through Open Market Borrowings," it said.
As a result, 12 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, have undertaken reforms to facilitate ease of doing business. Upon completion of reforms to facilitate ease of doing business, these 12 States were granted additional borrowing permission of Rs 28,183 crore, the statement added.
In view of the resource requirement to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of India increased the borrowing limit of the states by 2% of its GSDP in May last year. Half of this special dispensation was linked to the undertaking of citizen-centred reforms by the States. The four citizen-centred areas of reform identified included implementation of the One Nation Ration Card System, ease of business reform, urban local authority/utility reform, and reform of the power sector. To present, 17 countries have carried out at least one of the four reforms stipulated and have been given reform-linked borrowing permissions. Of these, 12 States have implemented a single nation ration card scheme, 12 States have made market reforms simpler, 5 States have implemented local body reforms, and 2 States have implemented reforms in the power sector.