NCC to start implementing one-form system in permits renewal next year
Business Mirror
December 11, 2016
THE National Competitiveness Council (NCC) will start the implementation of the one-form system for business-permit renewals next year, in keeping with the Duterte administration’s economic agenda of keeping government red tape at a minimum.
“Along with the two days or less goal for business-permit renewals, we’re trying to get an automation system and national business-name database. We want a one-form system, we’ll have partial implementation next year and in 2018 we’ll be near full implementation,” Guillermo M. Luz, cosector chairman of the NCC, said at the sidelines of the Project Repeal Day 2.
This move is in line with President Duterte’s marching order to cut bureaucratic red tape, and is expected to contribute to further easing of the process of setting up a business that is often cumbersome for small entrepreneurs.
A memorandum of agreement was recently signed by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of the Interior and Local Government to enable this system.
There are a myriad of steps in setting up and doing business, as detailed in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report, that the NCC is aiming to reduce.
The one-form system is seen to help cut down the “starting a business” step, which now takes six processes and eighth days. The official target of the Philippines is the global benchmark of three steps, the norm in highly competitive countries, such as Singapore and New Zealand.
The Ease of Doing Business Task Force met on Friday to discuss which local government units will pilot the implementation.
Paying taxes as a process involves 36 steps, which the NCC aims to cut down to 11.
“The reason we have 36 steps is you have monthly submission for SSS [Social Security System], PhilHealth [Philippine Health Insurance Corp.] and Pag-IBIG [Home Development Mutual Fund], and quarterly and annually for the BIR. Automating these will reduce the burden. Eventually, we can bring that down to the neighborhood of 10,” Luz added.
Meanwhile, the NCC’s work plan for 2017 also includes planning to estimate the total cost of compliance of businesses, to show the possible savings that can be accrued if red tape is reduced.
Luz said the NCC has secured a technical assistance grant from the British government to learn the standard-cost model to compute the cost.
“We’ll put a peso figure on it. We’ll see first how many days and how many people comply with a regulation and try to put a cost to it in terms of transportation and paperwork,” he added. “We’ll train every agency to learn this standard-cost model, and we’ll get this started around February of next year.”□