Chhattisgarh cabinet clears Ease of Doing Business bill

Raipur, Jul 8 (PTI) The Chhattisgarh cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft bill aimed at simplifying the process of starting a business or setting up a factory in the state and making it time-bound. The proposed Chhattisgarh Ease of Doing Business (Deregulation and Facilitation) Act, 2026, will be the first of its kind in the country, officials said. It seeks to reduce procedural hurdles through measures such as deemed approvals, self-certification, third-party verification, risk-based inspections and the elimination of duplicate licensing requirements, said an official. The proposed law is expected to promote investment by making regulatory processes more investor-friendly, he said. The draft bill was approved at the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai at Mantralaya Mahanadi Bhavan in Nava Raipur Atal Nagar. The cabinet also gave its nod to the draft Chhattisgarh Industrial Investment Promotion (Amendment) Bill, 2026, aimed at creating a more investor-friendly ecosystem by incorporating best practices from industrial policies of leading states. In another decision, the cabinet approved replacing the existing Tripartite Agreement mechanism with a Direct Debit Mandate (DDM), in line with the Reserve Bank of India guidelines, to secure payments made by the Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company to Central Public Sector Undertakings including NTPC for power purchases. The new system would ensure uninterrupted power supply from CPSUs without imposing any additional financial burden on the state, while the existing Letter of Credit mechanism would continue to remain available whenever required, said the official. The cabinet also approved amendments to the Chhattisgarh Police Special Executive Force (Bastar Fighters) recruitment and service rules, 2026. It also cleared the draft Chhattisgarh Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2026, paving the way for abolition of the state's Commercial Tax Tribunal. The move follows the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime and the establishment of the GST Appellate Tribunal, making the separate VAT tribunal redundant. Pending appeals will be transferred to the Revenue Board, the official said. The draft Chhattisgarh Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2026, was also approved to simplify GST compliance, expedite refunds, particularly for exporters and industries affected by the inverted duty structure, and improve tax administration, he said. PTI TKP KRK