These are the documents needed to open a restaurant— the checklist is much smaller for a gun

• It takes 45 documents to open a restaurant in India.
  
• According to the latest economic survey, opening a restaurant business needs 12 to 16 licenses — way more, in fact four times that of Singapore and China, which require merely four licenses.
  
• Delhi requires 26 documents — including liquor license, food safety and music — which is more than the number of documents needed to buy arms and guns with 19 documents.
  
• It takes another 35 days to get access to water and sewer connection.

It takes 45 documents to open a restaurant in India — thanks to the regulatory licenses needed to facilitate it.

According to the latest economic survey prepared by the Chief Economic Advisor, KV Subramanian, opening a restaurant business needs 12 to 16 licenses — four times that of Singapore and China, which require merely four licenses.

Among the metropolitan areas, Bengaluru requires 36 documents mandatory for approval while Mumbai gives a go ahead with 22, as per the National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI).

The national capital, on the other hand, requires 26 documents — including liquor licence, food safety and music. That is, in fact, more than the number of documents needed to buy arms and guns with 19 documents.

Construction permit

And, the construction permit and warehouse costs just add to it. The businesses in Delhi have to undergo several procedures — which takes almost four months to finally get a construction permit and another 35 days to get access to water and sewer connection.

This is double the amount of time needed to build one in Hong Kong — which leads in the World Bank rankings to obtain construction permits.

However, India has improved in the process of obtaining permits in the last five years. In 2014, the process took over six months to facilitate restaurant owners to actually start building on the land.

These are some of the gaps highlighted by Subramanian in the latest Economic Survey 2020 that are affecting the ease of doing business in India.

The survey also calls for the government to introduce more reforms to facilitate businesses.

See also:
'Boost home sales to revive banks' ⁠— that and other top highlights from India Economic Survey 2020

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