The SARAL (Simplified & Accelerated Regulatory Approvals and Licensing) Keralam Act, 2026, which provides for the constitution of a statutory authority to grant licences and clearances for projects over ₹25 crore, was passed in the Assembly on Friday.

The statutory authority will be called the SARAL Keralam Authority, and its brief under the new law is to issue an 'Integrated Enterprise Clearance Certificate' to an investor by, in the words of industries minister PK Kunhalikutty, "accelerating the process of obtaining various licences, clearances, permits and approvals from various government authorities under various laws for the establishment, operation, expansion, diversification or modernisation of investment projects with a capital investment exceeding ₹25 crore".

The Authority will have to grant clearances in two and a half months, within seventy-five days.

For the implementation of the Act, relevant sections and rules related to 19 state laws will be amended. The Act, however, will not have any influence over clearances that are governed by central laws.

The driving principle of the Act is 'One State – One Approval – One Document'. From now on, the investor will deal only with the SARAL Keralam Authority and not with various government departments.

Tyranny of bureaucracy
Instead of separate applications for each government department involved in the vetting of the project proposal, an investor will need to submit only one application for all the necessary clearances.

And this has to be submitted to the SARAL Secretariat through the Portal (the common online portal created for the receipt, processing, tracking and disposal of applications) or in physical mode. If defects or deficiencies are spotted, the departments will not be allowed to point them out separately, but all the issues flagged by the concerned departments will have to be collected together and then conveyed.

In other words, the departments have been stripped of their authority to ask for documents at spaced-out intervals that can frustrate the applicant and delay the project inordinately.

What's more, these defects can be informed only to the SARAL Secretariat and not to the applicants, as is done now. The Secretariat, then, will issue to the applicant what the Act calls a 'Consolidated Defect Memo'.

In short, the new law will obviate the investor's self-degrading compulsion to run after officers of individual departments like KSEB or Water Authority or the Panchayat. However, the right of government departments to carry out inspections or enforce compliance has not been taken away. It is just that the power to suspend or revoke a licence has been transferred exclusively to the Approval Committee.

SARAL structures
Under the Act, there will be a two-tier statutory clearance mechanism at the State-level and the district-level.

At the state-level, there will be the State Level Referral-cum-Appraisal Committee and the State Level Approval Committee. These will deal with all investments above ₹25 crore.

The Referral-cum-Appraisal Committee will be chaired by the industries secretary and will have more than nine members, including a senior officer from the Chief Secretary's office.

On receiving an application from the SARAL Secretariat, this Referral-cum-Appraisal Committee will evaluate the application, convene meetings with concerned departments, resolve discrepancies, if any, between the departments, and submit a consolidated report, detailing why the clearance was either granted or withheld, to the State-Level Approval Committee for the final decision.

The Approval Committee will be chaired by the Chief Secretary and will have nine members, mostly secretaries of various government departments like industries, finance, revenue, law, programme implementation and information and public relations. Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) Managing Director will be the convenor.

The Approval Committee has the power to grant or deny clearance. If clearance is denied, the reasons have to be recorded in writing.

The two corresponding district-level committees will deal with investments above ₹25 crore and up to ₹50 crore. The District-Level Referral-cum-Appraisal Committee will be chaired by the District Development Commissioner, and the Approval Committee by the district collector.

SARAL fast track
Once the SARAL Secretariat receives an application, it has to register the application and forward it, through the Portal, to the concerned government departments (competent authorities) and to the Referral–cum-Appraisal Committee within ten days.

The competent authorities will have to submit a Technical Scrutiny report within the next 30 days. In the next 15 days, the Referral–cum-Appraisal Committee will have to submit a 'consolidated report', along with its recommendations, to the Approval Committee. And within 20 days of receiving this 'consolidated report', the Approval Committee will have to take a decision, and if the clearance is granted, will have to issue the 'Integrated Enterprise Clearance Certificate'.

If denied, the aggrieved investor can file an appeal before the appellate authority, which will be the State-Level Approval Committee.

SWIFT vs SARAL
The SARAL Authority, in short, is the latest version of the single-window clearance mechanism that has been in existence in Kerala since 1999. The single window system began in 1999 with the Kerala Industrial Single Window Clearance Boards and Industrial Township Area Development Act, 1999.

Under the 1999 Act, there were three levels of clearances. One for industrial parks operated by government entities like KSIDC, KINFRA and Technopark. And then district- and state-level single-window clearance boards. Initially, clearances had to be given in 45 days, and later, it was brought down to 30 days. Two decades later, following the Centre's insistence on improving the ease of doing business index, the entire licensing process migrated online through the K-SWIFT (Kerala Single Window Interface for Fast and Transparent Clearance) portal. If approval is not given in 30 days, then consent is deemed to be given.

It is the powers of officialdom that separate SARAL from SWIFT. In K-SWIFT, even though an application is filed before a single window clearance body, the licences are issued by the departments concerned. Under SARAL, the power of these state government departments to issue licences has been taken away and placed in the hands of the Approval Authority.