It's easier to buy a gun in Delhi than to set up a restaurant: Economic Survey

"Although India has significantly reduced the time and cost of starting a business, a lot more needs to be done," it said.

Chief Economic Adviser K V Subramanian on Friday said India has jumped 79 positions in the World Bank’s Doing Business rankings, improving from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019. However, the survey observes that the country is still lagging behind in parameters such as the ease of starting a business, registering property, paying taxes and enforcing contracts.

The survey's chapter about 'Targeting Ease of Doing Business in India' throws light on how difficult it is to set up a restaurant in India when compared to other countries. The survey pointed out that while China and Singapore require only four licences to open an eatery, India requires more. 

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The survey said Delhi requires 26 documents while Bangaluru and Mumbai ask for 36 and 22 respectively. Apart from that, to open a restaurant in Delhi, one must have a ‘Police Eating House License’ from the Delhi Police which asks for 45 documents when compared to just 19 needed to buy a gun.  

"Although India has significantly reduced the time and cost of starting a business, a lot more needs to be done," it said.

Further, it said that when one looked at the performance of India's peer nations like China, Brazil and Indonesia on the same parameters, it can be seen that China fares much better than India on virtually all parameters.

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"An entrepreneur has to go through 10 procedures to set up a business in India taking 17-18 days to do so. On the other hand, Indonesia and Brazil require one extra process than India to open a business," it said, adding that Indonesia took four days less than India while Brazil took almost the same time.