Tamil Nadu Business Facilitation Act, 2018

No: 7 Dated: Jan, 25 2018

Tamil Nadu Business Facilitation Act, 2018

(Act No. 7 of 2018)

    An Act to support the State of Tamil Nadu, in its aspiration of being one of the most preferred investment destination in the country, by ensuring adequate information availability to the investors thereby enabling them to take informed decisions and to ensure single point receipt of applications for securing clearances that are required to establish or expand an enterprise and for clearances required during normal course of business including renewals in a time-bound manner and to provide for effective grievance redressal mechanism and fine in case of failure of Competent Authorities to act within a time limit and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

    Whereas it is expedient to provide for time-bound processing of applications and issue of clearances by various Competent Authorities of the State for establishing or expanding an enterprise for the promotion of economic development of the State and for an investor-friendly environment in the State and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto;

    Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Tamil Nadu in the Sixty-eighth Year of the Republic of India as follows:-

CHAPTER - I

Preliminary

1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Tamil Nadu Business Facilitation Act, 2018.

(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Tamil Nadu.

(3) It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 28th day of October 2017.

2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-

(a) "applicant" means a person duly authorized by an enterprise to file an application through Single Window Portal on behalf of the enterprise;

(b) "checklist" means the list of documents to be furnished by the applicant along with the Combined Application Form as may be prescribed;

(c) "clearances" means grant or issue of no-objection certificate, allotments, consents, approvals, permissions, registrations, enrolments, licences and the like, by any Competent Authority or authorities in connection with the setting up of an enterprise or expansion of an existing enterprise in the State and shall include all such approvals required till the enterprise starts commercial production and includes periodic renewals that may be required for such clearances;

(d) "Competent Authority" means any Department or Agency of the Government, Corporation, Board, Local Body or other authority established by the Government, which are entrusted with the powers or responsibilities to grant or issue clearances or incentives;

(e) "deemed approval" means a clearance deemed to have been given by the Competent Authority on the expiry of time limit for providing such clearance in the absence of sufficient and reasonable cause for not clearing the application within the time limit:

Provided that the deemed approval shall be subject to the approval of the Respective Committee under this Act;

(f) "department" means a department of the Government;

(g) "designated official" means an officer identified by a Competent Authority for processing of individual clearances in accordance with the rules made under this Act;

(h) "enterprise" means an undertaking that intends to engage in or is engaged in any or all of the activities, namely, manufacturing, processing or providing services;

(i) "Government" means the State Government;

(j) "Grievance Redressal Authority" means the Authority referred to in section 27;

(k) "Grievance Revisionary Authority" means the Authority referred to in section 27;

(l) "Guidance Bureau" means the Tamil Nadu Industrial Guidance and Export Promotion Bureau;

(m) "Incentive" means a financial package or a specific financial grant as may be specified by the Government;

(n) "MSME District Single Window Committee" means the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises District Single Window Committee constituted under section 21;

(o) "MSME State Single Window Committee" means the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises State Single Window Committee constituted under section 22;

(p) "MSME Investment Promotion and Monitoring Board" means the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises Investment Promotion and Monitoring Board constituted under section 23;

(q) "Nodal Agency" means the agency referred to in section 3;

(r) "notification" means a notification published in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette and the word 'notified' should be construed accordingly;

(s) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;

(t) "pre-scrutiny" means the examination of applications received prior to its acceptance to assess its completeness as per the checklist, in such manner as may be prescribed;

(u) "Respective Committee" means one or more of the following, namely:-

(i) MSME District Single Window Committee;

(ii) MSME State Single Window Committee;

(iii) State Single Window Committee;

(iv) State Single Window Monitoring Committee;

(v) MSME Investment Promotion and Monitoring Board;

(vi) Investment Promotion and Monitoring Board;

(v) "State" means the State of Tamil Nadu;

(w) "single window portal" means the web portal developed and maintained by the Nodal Agency;

(x) "time limit" means the number of working days within which a final decision regarding issue of clearance to an enterprise shall be taken by a Competent Authority from the date of receipt of the application, complete in all aspects.