Zubiri tries hand at slaying red tape dragon in government

Red tape has been costing the government an estimat­ed P140 billion a year and a Senate bill now seeks to fi­nally stop this by removing the bureaucratic layers that had made the country a lag­gard in terms of providing a conducive environment for business.

Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri sponsored the “Ease of Do­ing Business” bill last week, which he said aims to reduce the requirements and steps to start and operate busi­ness here, as well as elimi­nate redundant regulations.

Zubiri said the bill would address the four most prob­lematic areas for business operations, namely: corrup­tion, inadequate infrastruc­ture, tax regulations and in­efficient bureaucracy. These areas were cited by the Global Competitiveness Re­port 2015-2016 of the World Economic Forum.

“We have to play catch-up with our neighbors. While our beaches and marine re­sources are a boon to tour­ism and agriculture, our being an archipelago is a disadvantage compared to our continental-based com­petitors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean),” Zubiri said.

The bill proposes reform measures that would mini­mize regulations in securing licenses, clearances and permits on business enti­ties; create an environment

conducive for business to register, comply with and operate; encourage foreign investment.

A co-sponsor of the bill, Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto said red tape was an “overdiagnosed but undertreated disease.”

“Instead of being miti­gated, it has metastasized all over the bureaucracy,” he said.

He noted that in the Global Competitiveness Index, the country ranked 137th out of 138 economies in the number of procedures to start a business. It was also 115th on the length of time to start one.

“In the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business re­port, the Philippines has gone down four rungs, from No. 95 in 2015, to 99 in 2017, out of 190 economies,” Recto added.

In the report, the country was 161st in starting a business, 127th in ease in paying taxes, and 115th in the paper work to employ workers.

In the 2017 ranking, the Philippines was 171st in starting a business, 85th in dealing with construction permits, and 112th in registering a property.

“In many of these metrics, failed states, like Afghanistan, are ranked higher than us. The seven countries covered by Trump’s immigration ban even fare better,” Recto noted.

“Red tape costs small businesses P140 billion in lost eco­nomic opportunities yearly. Digong (President Duterte) must be reminded that red tape is a bigger problem than the Reds,” Recto said.

Recto said under the bill, the process for securing govern­ment documents has been shortened, the number of require­ments and signatories reduced, and the delivery hastened.

The price to acquire the documents will allow the recovery of the cost in making them, but not to make a profit, he said. “If we demand premiums for prompt service, we must likewise give discounts for delays and slap those responsible with de­merits, which this bill mandates.”.

Under the bill, an application that is not acted on within a prescribed time gets automatically approved.

“We have to lengthen the validity of licenses, permits, passports, NSO clearances, and make them transactable on­line. If documents are not perishable items, why must they have short expiry dates?” he added.

The bill also provides for multipurpose use of clearances.

“Why must one be required to submit an original clear­ance to this office, to that office, and to the next, when it ought to be one-size-fits-all?” Recto added.

“In airports for example, why should travelers queue to pay a travel tax when this can be embedded in the cost of the tickets, and if airlines are deputized as collection agents, then compensate them, and I am sure that the cost would be lower than what we pay employees to manually issue the receipt and manually count the money,” he said. “Nothing strangles Filipino exceptionalism and creativity more than countless and useless rules.”

He added: “One more bad thing about red tape is that it deflates government spending. Scratch the surface of an un­obligated appropriation and you will find complex rules lurking below.”