Sen. Aquino Wants 193 Hours Spent for Regulatory Requirements Reduced

An average of 193 business hours are being consumed each year by an individual obtaining necessary permits and tax payments.

Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday said he filed Senate Bill No. 348, or the Government Efficiency Office (GEO) Act of 2016, to hopefully drastically reduce this regulatory requirements that burden the public and businesses.

“Lengthy, complicated and overlapping regulations from various government agencies result in costly and time consuming processes that have inconvenienced far too many Filipinos for too long,” Aquino, an entrepreneur, said.

Aquino said obtaining government I.D.s, paying taxes, requesting for necessary permits and other dealings with government leaves citizens frustrated, often pushing them to find extrajudicial avenues to fulfill requirements.

In case of businessmen, Aquino pointed out that obtaining each necessary permit involves up to 30 steps aside from 47 tax payments to make each year, which consume an average of 193 business hours.

“These bureaucratic inefficiencies can lead to the failure of a fledgling business. It is no wonder the Philippines ranks 103rd out 189 countries in the Doing Business rankings by the World Bank,” he stressed.

To do away with regulatory barriers that hamper the nation’s growth and oppress Filipinos, the bill seeks the creation of a special arm under the Office of the President that will be tasked to ensure efficiency in the existing and proposed regulations across government agencies.

This measure seeks to create a National Policy on the Development and Implementation of Regulations (NPDIR) to set policy­-making principles and guidelines to be followed by all government agencies.

Under the bill, a Government Efficiency Office is mandated to implement the NPDIR. It will be tasked to review existing regulations and recommend their repeal, amendment or consolidation to relieve the public of the heavy burden of compliance.

With a streamlined regulatory procedure, Aquino said individuals would be encouraged to comply with the law and make the market more accessible for businesses and MSMEs.

If enacted into law, Aquino believes the Government Efficiency Office Act will contribute to President Rodrigo Duterte’s commitment to spare the public from hassles and delays in government transactions.

President Duterte said reforms to ensure competitiveness and promote ease of doing business will be mandatory under his administration.

“We shall enhance local business environment by addressing bottlenecks in business registration and processing, streamlining investment application process and integration the services of various government offices,” Duterte said in his state of the nation address (SONA) last Monday. (PNA) RMA/JFM