“RIA can help measure the laws and regulation that hurt national growth”, Amitabh Kant ”
March 25, 2015, New Delhi (India)
Speaking during the opening session of a two day training programme on Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA), Mr Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion said that the workshop is very timely as India is on a reform path.
Mr Kant was speaking at a workshop organised by CUTS International and CUTS Institute for Regulation & Competition here today. The workshop is being held under a project on RIAs in the financial sector supported by the UK Government.
He emphasized the need for India to undertake rigorous cost-benefit assessment of laws and regulations to help remove the impediments to national growth and RIA can play an important role in such analysis. In order for India to grow at 9-10% over the next three decades, the manufacturing sector will have to grow by around 14% over the same period, said Mr Kant. He added that India recognises this imperative need and is deeply committed to improving the regulatory environment on ease of doing business in India.
Mr Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS International in his opening remarks said ‘the absence of RIA in policy framework in India results in formulation of bunch of avoidable regulations’. Mr Mehta added that CUTS has contributed to the erstwhile Planning Commission’s Working Group on Business Regulatory Reforms with a recommendation on impact assessment of existing and proposed regulations.
Mr Aurodeep Nandi, Economic Adviser, British High Commission, shared UK’s experience in regulatory reforms. Referring to the practice in UK, Mr Nandi said that in order to reduce the stock of new regulations for businesses, the Govt. operates a 1-in, 2-out rule. Mr Nandi emphasised the need to adopt RIA is long overdue in India and it is the need of the hour, as the tool would help the policy makers undertake cost-benefit analysis before introduction of new regulation.
RIA is a broad tool used to assess impacts (costs and benefits) of a regulation before it is adopted or existing laws need to be rectified. It is evolving quickly as it is mainstreamed into policy processes around the world. The one-day seminar that will follow the 2-day workshop will comprise government, regulators, subject experts and will make an attempt to sensitise the participants about RIA and benefits of applying RIA to existing and proposed regulations in developing countries. The programme has about 40 participants from various organisations (RBI, SEBI, CCI, Energy Regulatory Agencies, etc).
For further information please contact:
Udai S Mehta: 09829285926, usm@cuts.org
Amol Kulkarni: 09929642313; amk@cuts.org