Sensitization programme on Business Registration Number and Address Information System

GANGTOK, 14 May: A sensitization programme on Business Registration Number [BRN] and Address Information System [House Number] was organized by the Department of Economics, Statistics, Monitoring and Evaluation [DESME] at Chintan Bhawan today. The programme had DR Nepal [Secretary, RMDD] as the chief guest accompanied by PT Ethenpa [Secretary, Commerce & Industries] as the guest of honour and was attended by Gram Vikas Adhikaris, Panchayats, BDOs, Panchayat Assistants, Councillors and officers from the line department.
In his address, the chief guest DR Nepal [Secretary, RMDD] stated that the Business Registration Number [BRN] is one of the works given to the Panchayats under the decentralization programme at the ground level and so the Panchayats should be aware of all the rules, guidelines and notifications necessary before issuing any certificates for authentication. This is the time of RTI Acts so everyone has to be very careful and the certificates should be given to genuine people, he added.
The post of Panchayat Development Assistant will be created after the formation of the new government for which the necessary decisions have already been taken, he said and added that this was a very important programme and so it was necessary for the people and officials attending the programme to make the most of it.
In his key note address, the Director General cum Secretary, DESME, SD Tshering explained the need of Business Registration Number [BRN] and House Number in the state. He added that the government had directed DESME to take forward three programmes, two of them are the above named and the third is the UID seeding programme.
Business Registration Number [BRN] is related to Gross Domestic Product [GDP], which in simple English can be stated as goods and services produced in a year in a specified market. Through the GDP [of at least past 3 to 4 years] one can make out how developed or underdeveloped the area is, so GDP is very important for the state of Sikkim, which stands at Rs. 5,490 crores, he stated. The Planning Commission will release funds for other programmes only after looking at the GDP of the state and if your GDP is low then you cannot take loans either, he added.

Even the growth rate of the GDP of Sikkim which is 7.3% is better compared to that of all India which is 4.07%. If the GDP of the state is good then the per capita income of the people also reflects on the higher side like Sikkim’s which is at Rs. 88,137, he informed.

Earlier trade, hotels and restaurants, manufacturing units were not added in the GDP of the state, thus the GDP was low and so the Central Government asked the state governments to provide Business Registration Number [BRN] to everyone and on the basis of this a census was conducted by DESME. The census showed that the highest number of enterprises [shops] were in the East and the lowest in the North districts, while the social group owners was broken down as ST: 23%; SC: 02%; OBC: 15%; MBC: 09%; others: 23%, he further informed.

Under decentralization the Panchayats will be given the power to issue the Business Registration Number [BRN] to people in the rural areas, said Mr Tshering. DESME will conduct checking on a yearly basis to see whether the enterprises are running or have closed down, he added.

It is very important to issue this number as this will show the contribution of the enterprise to the state’s GDP and to understand this training will be given to the Gram Vikas Adhikaris in the coming days, he informed.

Speaking on the issue of Address Information System [House Number], he stated that the address system of the state was not very good as compared to other states and people were facing lot of problems because of the lack of house numbers. Two years ago a proposal was put forth to the government regarding the same where UD&HD would provide house numbers in urban areas and RMDD would provide the same in rural areas, but due to crunch of funds this did not materialize. So the government asked DESME to go ahead with the programme to provide permanent house numbers to the people of Sikkim, he added.

Therefore the departments related to house numbers have been invited for this programme such as Food, PHED, Power, election, etc, he said and added that the Panchayats will issue house numbers to people in the rural areas while DESME will issue the number in the urban areas. A socio-economic census will also be conducted during the issuing of house numbers, he stated. According to the 2011 census a total of 1,28,131 [1,30,000 approximately] households will be provided with house numbers by DESME, he added.

He further informed about the status of Aadhar in Sikkim where he stated that a total of 5,78,999 people have enrolled for Aadhar of which 5,66,339 has been generated.