NOT Easy to Do Business
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| # | Submitted | User | IP address | It was | Sector / Industry | State / UT | City | Response-time of officials | Number of documents to be submitted | Availability of information about the process | Overall Rating | It was an attempt to | Other | The problem was | Other cause(desc) | Details of experience | Advice for others | Share my story with | Name | Contact no | Privacy Policy | Contact me | Display it | |
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| 35 | 16 Nov 2016 - 18:03 | Anonymous (not verified) | 203.122.16.122 | Not Easy to Do Business | E-Commerce | Maharashtra | Mumbai | 3/5 | 3/5 | 1/5 | 3/5 |
Register the business Trade outside state/ country |
Submitting the same document to different departments |
The biggest problem is the lack of clarity in the process. I went to the company registrar's office and took a form, filled it and submitted it to the officer. He gave me 'n' number of reasons explaining why they cannot accept the form, and I was given a long list of documents needed for my form to be accepted. Now to get each of these documents, I had run around to different departments of the government. No one offered help at the government office, because they expected a bribe to solve my queries. I collected all my documents from all the offices to submit these documents to the same officer only to know another set of reasons why my form won’t be accepted and another set of documents to be submitted. At this point, I was so frustrated that I asked the officer why he didn’t tell me about these reasons and documents earlier. And he simply smiled and said, I forgot. There will be lot more things you experience when you visit a government office. The officer was busy with some government work, which he was not supposed to be given in the first place. So this is used as an excuse to not meet you but the real reason is that he somehow wants to extract bribe from you. The more frustrated you are, the more he earns. Government employees could find a million reasons to not deal with you or your issue, and there is nothing you can do about it. According to the standard government procedure one can complain to his higher officers but the higher officers are equal partners in taking bribe. All have defined what charges will be taken as a bribe when you want something from them. How do I know about this? I am a son of a government officer (not company's registrar, but another government department) and despite that I tried to register my company honestly. I know both the sides of the coin. My dad tried to fight this as an honest officer when he was young. He has to visit courts till this date because some senior officers framed him in the wrong case. The last case has been running for last 2 years. My dad tried to contact everyone he can above his officers but all told him to shut up and be part of the system or else he will be in jail for sure. If you ask me for a solution, then it's done already in passport offices. TCS is running that department amazingly. The process is exactly described on their website. No local laws affect that procedure. And your turn is decided once you register online. You will surely be able to finish with the procedure in 1 or 2 hours. You know exactly what is needed before going to that department. |
Don't plan on doing business in India. Move abroad! |
Senior Department Officials Keep it Anonymous |
Sanjay Gedam | 8652786590 | gedamsanju@yahoo.com | I have read and I agree with the Privacy Policy mentioned below | Yes | |||
| 36 | 21 Nov 2016 - 12:10 | Prashant | 203.122.16.122 | Not Easy to Do Business | Passport | Maharashtra | Palghar | 3/5 | 2/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | Other | Obtaining a passport | They keep asking me to submit some new document every time |
Doing business in India is like travelling on a road with multiple roadblocks. Every hurdle has to be crossed in order to reach your destination. Unnecessary & excessive laws hamper business growth. Time consuming approvals required at every step.(1) As an example, Indian passport applicants in Palghar district of Western Maharashtra are asked to bring one witness(2) who is not a relative and should reside in the same building as the person who wants a passport. Does such a rule even exist? No such law is clearly mentioned on Passport Seva website(3). So, an applicant has to visit the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) with original documents, then again to Police Station with same original documents and also the witness from same building. Why can't both be integrated? Also, laws need to clear cut for valuable documents like a passport. Any genuine entrepreneurs, small businesses or solo travellers in Palghar district may not be able to expand their journeys, if they can't bring witness from same building. In my opinion, this is just ridiculous! One shouldn't have to go through such pains to obtain a passport. And even if the procedure is a little lengthy, they should at least mention it clearly on the website. (1): http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/licence-raj-replaced-by-time-consuming-approval-raj-biocon-cmd-kiran-mazumdar-shaw/articleshow/53490079.cms?from=mdr (2): https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CpQ2_2dUMAE70RB.jpg (3): http://passportindia.gov.in/AppOnlineProject/online/faqPoliceVerification |
Patience is required. The Indian bureaucracy will frustrate you! | Senior Department Officials | Turbasu Chatterjee | 9987654687 | tarbasuchatter@hotmail.com | I have read and I agree with the Privacy Policy mentioned below | Yes | ||
| 37 | 21 Nov 2016 - 17:53 | Prashant | 203.122.16.122 | Not Easy to Do Business | IT | Karnataka | Bengaluru | 2/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | Register the business | Can’t find information |
Everything is difficult if you are starting from scratch to set up a business. • Finding office space: Not everyone has big enough a house or circumstances to incubate the organisation at home. • Something as simple as commuting: It is hazardous to drive, and arduous to take public transport. • Government policies/banking system: Something as simple a company formation - if you got for private limited model, the Registration Of the Company expenses require a fair amount. Cheaper option is to register company under partnership act (only if you have a friend who is a CA/CS/Lawyer and will help you out). Again, if your company is under partnership firm, banks won't give out unsecured loans/ credit cards to you/ your employees. This is the reason many good and hard working employees can leave the job with your company and go anywhere else where they get better facilities. • No regard for Intellectual Property Rights or its implementation: Almost illiterate cops or Economic Offences Wing Officials dare not bothered about whether stealing/copying code/project plans/content is a big deal! • There are multiple overlapping compliance checklists that will take you ages to get a grip on. • Rampant corruption: To set up a meeting, to get anything registered, to not stand in the line for hours- every little thing requires a bribe to get your work done. This can go on forever. There is no way that we can ever reach the competence levels of foreign countries. I’ve lost hope in our system! |
It's a difficult process. If you have the time, money, and energy, you might just be able to start your own business. Hence you need immense patience till things fall in place. | Keep it Anonymous | Anonymous | 88189456876 | shrawanbanerjee@gmail.com | I have read and I agree with the Privacy Policy mentioned below | Yes | |||
| 40 | 23 Nov 2016 - 18:18 | Prashant | 203.122.16.122 | Easy to Do Business | Manufacturing | Delhi | Delhi | 3/5 | 2/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | Register the business | It was not a very complicated process to register the business. However the rules of Excise Duty and Sales Tax is one hassle I face. I have to redesign the process according to the various needs of our clients. At times this becomes a problem. Sanitation and cleanliness is to be maintained because inspection is something unexpected. | One has to be very persistent if you want to start a business. Stick with your project and fight the system. | Keep it Anonymous | Anonymous | 9310533008 | saurabh@dynapen.in | I have read and I agree with the Privacy Policy mentioned below | Yes | ||||
| 41 | 23 Nov 2016 - 18:31 | Prashant | 203.122.16.122 | Easy to Do Business | Textiles | Delhi | Hauz Khas | 4/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | Register the business |
I registered Safomasi in 2012, when I set it up with my wife, and started it a year later. Signing the business up was the easy part. As a textile business, I also needed a big, clean space. That was really difficult. In fact, this current office is only the second location I took a look at – I did not want to look further and risk losing this one. It suits our needs. Overall, the process seemed complicated though. I wasn’t really involved in the set-up of the business myself. I handed down all the work to my accountant, who did it himself. In terms of the experience, it wasn’t a hassle to me personally, but I found the amount of paperwork required by the government to be too much, taxing and frankly, unnecessary. Moreover, there was no information available about the procedure online, so I didn’t know what the next step was and hence my accountant handled all of that. Hence like everyone even I had to go through a third party despite me having all the paperwork and documents in place. So there is registration fees involved and on the top of it there is this lawyers’ or accountants’ fees involved. If one has all their documents in place, he/ she should be able to independently register the start up and not required to go through a third party. I did not know any of the costs involved as well. They were nowhere to be found – not on the websites, nowhere. When I visited the government office, all kind of unnecessary questions were posed at me rather than asking relevant information pertaining to my business or documents. |
One has to learn how to deal with people. I’ve had different experiences with different people. I’d also advise them to conduct their business, keeping their finances in mind, and only take decisions that are financially sound. At the start, there will be a lot of costs involved, and the profits will trickle in slowly – one has to be patient with it. | Both | Mahinder Singh | 9650869053 | hello@safomasi.com | I have read and I agree with the Privacy Policy mentioned below | Keep me updated about responses to my report and experience. | Yes | |||
| 42 | 23 Nov 2016 - 18:40 | Prashant | 203.122.16.122 | Not Easy to Do Business | Management Consultancy | Delhi | Hauz Khas | 4/5 | 3/5 | 1/5 | 2/5 | Register the business | Can’t find information |
Coming from the UK, the whole procedure went a little quicker than I expected. We hired a lawyer who handled all of the legal work. As per the experience, the lack of information regarding how to set up a business here is terrible. In the UK, every piece of information is on the government’s website, which makes the whole procedure very simple, whereas in India, it is so difficult to understand on your own! I would count this alone as a barrier to entry. Every step had to be explained to me by the lawyer or the accountant. And I had no option but to trust my lawyer. There are many grey areas regarding taxes and you don’t know surely what you need to do. Some of our clients are international and we receive certain fees for our expertise in dollars. Hence my accountant advised me to pay certain taxes since but he said it wasn’t a rule and I wasn’t sure whether I needed to pay that tax or not. The procedure could be set up online and that way it could be much easier and less complicated for people like me to go through the procedure. |
To newer entrepreneurs, I would advise you to pick out good lawyers and accountants, and trust them. They know this system best, and work very well with it. In India, such services are quite reasonable in terms of costs – back home; the legal fees alone are too high! Lastly, I’d advise them to get all their paperwork in order before they start, which would make the registration and paperwork a lot faster. |
Both | Laura Quinn | 98107 76929 | laura.quinn@doonething.in | I have read and I agree with the Privacy Policy mentioned below | Keep me updated about responses to my report and experience. | Yes | ||
| 43 | 23 Nov 2016 - 18:51 | Prashant | 203.122.16.122 | Easy to Do Business | Entertainment | Delhi | Hauz Khas | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | Register the business |
It was quite easy for me to set up my business (LIMN Entertainment) which I would categorize under the entertainment sector. It was easy for me because I registered under my company as a sole proprietorship and also consulted my accountant who handled everything for me. I had to submit just three documents and the process went pretty quick. Infact the process to register my company took only a week or probably 10 days. The difficult part was finding a office space in South Delhi. I looked for 25 to 30 places and my current office where we are sitting was the last place I saw. Different people have different needs. I wanted a place with natural light and parking space and this was the only place I liked which had both of them. Registration of this office (property) was a bit difficult and was an elongated process. It needed a lot of unnecessary paper work. I had got the keys of this office before the paperwork and other formalities were completed. Also had it been a Pvt. Ltd or a Public Limited company, the process of registering the company would be very tedious and no procedure is very clear and straightforward. The process online is also not very easy to understand. One other thing I would like to mention is that the procedure of registering any business or company and the documentation should be online and paperless. It would be much easier that way. But I have heard we are getting better with time unlike how it was in the past. Like taxation is steadily becoming online, I would like the procedure of registering the business or documentation process of registering your start up should be paperless and online. |
It is not advice to others but rather it is a necessity to have all your paperwork in place. A lot of learning takes place only while you are ‘in the process’. I wasn’t aware of running a company or for that manner even manage a team before I started this company. But the journey has been very interesting and I have learnt a lot in the process. One advice would be – you need to be patient. Immense patience is needed if you want to be an entrepreneur. It takes time to set up your company and also for your company to grow unless your business is inherited. My mantara has been – “choose happiness over money!” I was in a very decent and good paying job. But my happiness lied in setting up LIMN and I am very happy about how it is steadily gaining momentum and growing. |
Both | Divij Kaul | 011 4660 2773 | bhavya@limnentertainment.com | I have read and I agree with the Privacy Policy mentioned below | Keep me updated about responses to my report and experience. | Yes | |||
| 44 | 23 Nov 2016 - 19:41 | Anonymous (not verified) | 112.110.25.51 | Not Easy to Do Business | Skill Development | Delhi | New Delhi | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 |
Trade outside state/ country Other |
Getting due payments cleared from the Government | Delay by the department even though I completed the procedure | Central government does not pay to the states and the state government does not pay to the service provider. And eventually when this happens state government officials seek undue advantages. | Let's gather and raise our voices. It may affect our businesses temporarily buy now that Modi government at the Centre is working selflessly, things can be expected to get better. | Both | Varun Gaba | 8800394950 | Profeasion.gaba@gmail.com | I have read and I agree with the Privacy Policy mentioned below | Keep me updated about responses to my report and experience. | Yes | |
| 45 | 24 Nov 2016 - 15:35 | Prashant | 203.122.16.122 | Not Easy to Do Business | IT | Telangana | Hyderabad | 2/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | Register the business | Confusing laws that say different things |
Bureaucrats are more often insensitive than not, and do not have the mentality of helping citizens. Rather, they have the mentality of making things as difficult as possible - they think their job is to make things more difficult for citizens. A lot of markets are controlled by guilds and associations of existing businessmen. They place a high cost of entry for new entrants, especially someone without connections in the business community. I experienced extortionate behavior by local working class people, goons, thugs and small time politicians/crooks. Bribes on the preface of "donations" for 100 different religious festivals a year are taken. There is a total lack of rule of the law and lawlessness. It is a utter failure on the part of the police and judiciary since they do not have the capacity to dispose cases in a timely manner. One needs to be careful and look out for extortionate,fraudulent and deceiving behavior by lawyers and some Charted Accountants. |
Hire a good and trustworthy lawyer/CA who has experience in dealing with bureaucrats. They are also well-versed with the processes and procedures of the laws related to a start-up. | Keep it Anonymous | Anonymous | 77898764578 | advaygoyal52@gmail.com | I have read and I agree with the Privacy Policy mentioned below | Yes | |||
| 47 | 28 Nov 2016 - 12:47 | Prashant | 203.122.16.122 | Not Easy to Do Business | Media | Delhi | New Delhi | 3/5 | 2/5 | 1/5 | 2/5 | Register the business | Submitting the same document to different departments |
I did not know where do we start. The whole process took me about fifteen days, just to register a sole proprietorship. Now, I know it may not sound like a lot, but it is a lot when one circles a government office for two weeks, every single day. Every other day, they would ask me for a different document. Then, they would direct me to another desk, where the same procedure was followed. I was never asked for a bribe, but in retrospect, I wouldn't have minded if I paid a few hundreds here and there, if that meant my work would get done faster. There isn't even a proper parking space outside the offices. Thank god for Uber! One of the worst things about making rounds of these offices was that you had to wait there until your number or name is called for. I remember staying hungry for the first day. From the next day, my mother sent a tiffin with me! A lot of other people brought some food as well, so it was pretty apparent that they were accustomed to such a system. Lastly, I wish the system required less paper - not only for convenience, but also as a concern for the environment. It creates unnecessary hassles and wastage. How about starting an app, on which you can scan and directly send your documents? I think it would make everyone's work a lot more easier. |
Take loads of copies of all your documents when you go. Carry food. Try not to bribe them, in spite of how alluring it may seem! | Keep it Anonymous | Anonymous | 7767021676 | abcd@gmail.com | I have read and I agree with the Privacy Policy mentioned below | Yes |