Government to Implement Aadhar like Unique Identity for Enterprises in India The plan carries the potential to improve the comprehensiveness of data collection as well as the ease of compliance with procedures
By Naval Goel •
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On 1st February 2018, the Union budget for the session 2018-19 was tabled in the parliament. In the same budget, there were several positive reforms intended for the growth of the economy.
Talking about the Union Budget 2018, then there were many things to cheer about, such as positive changes in the agriculture sector. The new budget has promised that the income of farmers will be doubled by 2022. Moving towards the healthcare sector, 1.5 lakh new health-care centres will be set up under the Ayushman Bharat Program. In the Budget, Mr. Jaitely also announced the launch of the New Health Protection scheme under which 10 crore poor and vulnerable families would be covered. Under the scheme, 10 crore families will be provided INR 5 lakh cover per family annually for treatment. Apart from these, several other announcements were made related to the railways, tax exemption for senior citizens, changes in EPF and many more. Of all changes, one thing that grabbed the eyes of the youth and the people in the business sector is the proposal of unique identity for businesses.
Unique Identity Number For Businesses on Cards
After Aadhar, it is now the turn for the corporate/ business sector to get a unique identification number for their companies.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is looking forward to providing a 16-digit number to each business establishment. If the same proposal gets implemented properly then the exercise would take India into the group of Canada, Hong Kong and the UK.
The new 16-digit number will be based on the Census code of 2011. It will allow identification of the village and district where the business is located. This great move will help the government in creating and maintaining a complete database of businesses, it will also simplify business dealings with various governmental agencies by reducing the opportunities for duplicate entities. Resolving identity issues will save time for future registrations or licences.
This new proposal is a part of the government's effort of making a National Business Register that would capture data on all kinds of business organization in every district of the country. This is a great move aimed at strengthening the assessment of economic activity by taking into account even the smallest of business establishments.
It will be a departure from the current schemes under which the government of India covers bigger units which is related to the manufacturing and repair sub-sectors through the Annual Survey of Industries.
The plan to allot unique registration numbers to all businesses is an appreciable move that should be welcomed by everyone. It carries the potential to improve the comprehensiveness of data collection as well as the ease of compliance with procedures.
Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Sikkim and Mizoram are likely to be the first to hand out the unique numbers to businesses as they have completed the data collection required for the business register.
Conclusion
Allocation of Aadhar to businesses is undoubtedly a great move by the government of India. If it gets implemented properly then there will be an increase in the ease of doing business for both the owner and the government. It will help a lot in having a clear data of all businesses operating in India. We should all welcome this move with open hands and wait to see the positive results of the same.
