Companies that are keen to invest in Meghalaya will now have to apply online as part of ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in consonance with the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) of the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
In order to simplify business regulations and ease of compliance and to eliminate physical touch points to bring transparency in information dissemination and appropriate implementation, the State government has created an Online Single Window System called the Invest Meghalaya Portal.
The portal will provide the facility for online applications submission, payment, tracking and monitoring, downloading the final signed certificate, licenses, document and third-party verification for the purpose of the authenticity of the approval or registration. No physical or manual application shall be requested by the concerned authority in addition to the online application.
According to a government notification, documents uploaded with online applications should be sufficient and no physical copies shall be requested by the competent authority. It also said that certificates downloaded from the official website or portals of various Central or State ministries, departments, agencies shall be accepted as valid. Physically signed, stamped certificates shall not be required.
It also said that there shall be no physical touch points between the applicant and the department from the time of application process till the final decision except in cases where inspection/site visit is required under the concerned Act/Rules. Applicants will no longer need to be physically present for submission and verification of documents before the certificate, license, approval or permit is issued.
Notifications at every critical stage of application processing shall be sent to the applicant through SMS or email.
All queries or clarifications related to industrial applicants shall be sought once and within seven days of receiving the application from such applicant by the concerned authority and a resolution shall be given within 15 days.
Additionally, the Invest Meghalaya Portal has developed an online dashboard for all services. The online dashboard has been created as per DPIIT Guidelines and it covers features related to service timelines prescribed as per the Public Service Guarantee Act, total number of applications received, total number of applications approved, average, median and minimum time taken for obtaining approvals, along with the average fee for completion of entire process.
For new registrations, application-wise details shall be updated in the online portal with regards to date of application, date of approval and breakup of fee details. All the dashboards are being updated on a real-time basis.
