The Un-Ease of Doing Business

I hate January.

Every January of every calendar year, enterprises must renew their business permits with the cities and towns they have their offices located at.  On top of the hefty fees & taxes, the process of renewal is tedious.  Every enterprise must submit numerous requirements such as but not limited to securing clearances for fire protection, sanitation, employees’ health certifications, & environmental compliance.  Every clearance has its own set of requirements from documentation to inspection, and this adds to the complexity & time-consuming work of enterprise administrators.

Government politicians who are behind the complicated process of annual business permit renewals say the enterprises’ inconveniences and expenses are outweighed by the assurance of regulatory compliance which ensures the protection of the politicians’ constituents.

The politicians also cite the setting up of one-stop shops in big cities, in which enterprises can fulfil all their renewal permits’ requirements in one place.  Instead of going from one agency to another at different locations, the agencies set up desks with staff at one place, like in a big room at city hall or at a shopping mall closer to most businesses.   

Legislators in the Philippine Congress also boast they had introduced laws to make it easy to do business.  There’s even a tax law known as the Ease of Doing Business Act. 

It doesn’t, however, stop the enterprises (and myself) from complaining. 

Most enterprises don’t renew their business permits in one day whether there’s a one-stop-shop or not.  There’s always going to be a snag. 

Examples:

• Business permit officer demands enterprise to justify its application for renewal when the former notices a decline in income (many city permit officers are told not to believe enterprises when they report lower incomes).
• Environmental city officials ask enterprises for additional requirements even though what they ask for aren’t on the published list of requirements.
• City treasurers only accept cashier’s or bank manager’s checks for payment which entails at least an extra day for the enterprise staff to apply & receive such from their financial institutions. 
• City officers release last-minute changes to requirements & regulations which catch enterprise staff off-guard and forces rework on their compiling of documents for submission.   

Most cities and towns also don’t release renewed permits right away.  Enterprise staff always need to go back to city halls another day in another month to retrieve their precious permits. 

The annual renewal of business permits doesn’t make it easy to do business in the Philippines.  It also doesn’t help that filing taxes and submitting reports to different national agencies other than cities and town aren’t any easier too. 

It’s not easy to do business in the Philippines, no matter what politicians may say.  The complexity and the expense just add to the uneasiness. 

Electing new politicians isn’t the answer as by experience, as just about all inaugurated politicians in Philippine history have never really made the effort to revamp the much-disliked renewal permit process. 

The answer lies in getting qualified people to re-design the process to make it better. 

But in the Philippines, making things better in government is often nothing more than wishful thinking. 

I hate January. 

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