Thread by @Secretary_MoHUA

For facilitating Ease of Doing Business in Construction Permits to improve transparency & accountability against the global benchmarks of ensuring assured services, 2,056 cities/ towns, have implemented OBPS that includes 444 #AMRUT Mission cities.

#TransformingUrbanLandscape

It is heartening to share that 14 States/ UTs have implemented OBPS in their all cities/ towns. India’s rank in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report, 2020 in construction permits improved to 27 from 186 in 2015.

#TransformingUrbanLandscape

Implementation of OBPS has streamlined the process through single window clearance. It has reduced time & cost, eliminated need for personal visits, boosted transparency, integrated internal/external agencies, improved capacity building by strengthening professional requirements.

Under AMRUT, cities have been encouraged to mobilize resources by issuing Municipal Bonds. These are issued when a government body wants to raise funds for infra-related projects like roads, water. SEBI circulated detailed guidelines for ULBs in 2015 to raise funds by issuing MBs

Municipal Bond market has great potential for augmenting financial capacity of the ULBs; however, it has largely remained untapped. It was decided that incentive will be awarded to 10 cities for issuing Municipal Bonds @ ₹13 cr per ₹100 cr worth of bonds issued during 2018-19.

₹3,390 crore were raised through issuance of Municipal Bonds during 2018-19 for upgrading urban infrastructure. ₹181.34 crore has been released as incentive to 8 ULBs namely Ahmedabad, Amravati, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Indore, Pune, Surat & Vizag for raising funds through MBs.

Municipal Bond is an innovative means of raising funds for urban development & strengthening municipal finance. Municipal bodies can mobilize resources for #TransformingUrbanLandscape, progress & public utility services & also exercise financial discipline in their organization.