Half of top10 biz problems solved – government

Ma. Elisa P. Osorio
Philippine Star

The government together with the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) has solved half of the top 10 business problems with bureaucracy identified by foreign and local investors.

In a press conference, NCC chairman Ambassador Ceasar Bautista said the move will help attract more businesses.

“We will report the development to President Arroyo next week,” Bautista said.

The five problems solved involved Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth), the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Bureau of Immigration (BI), Social Security System (SSS) and the Department of Energy and Natural Resources (DENR).

Businessmen complained that it took three months for Philhealth to approve reimbursements and benefits redemption.

The problem with BIR on the other hand was the time it took to claim tax refund on overpayment of tax liabilities. It took eight years before while it took 60 days for the BI to grant work visas.

Also the SSS takes around one to two months for the manual posting of contributions.

The problems that need to be solved concern the Bureau of Customs (BOC), Local Government Units (LGUs), the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), the Bureau of Fire Protection and the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD).

Bautista explained that it is difficult for companies to wait for 30 days for a bonded warehouse.

“This is already an improvement because before it took businesses 90 days to secure a permit,” Bautista said.

Next month, he said the NCC will sit down with the BOC to talk about how the processing time can be reduced to two weeks.

“These are reputable companies. We have already given them a lot,” he noted.

To deal with the problem concerning LGUs. Bautista said they will be talking to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). He said it takes 90 to 120 days to process business permits.

“There are other LGUS who can do it for a day. We need to sit down the slow moving LGUs with the more efficient ones to discuss strategy,” he said.

Meanwhile, the problem with LLDA is the P360 per million of capital application fee for LLDA clearance.

He said firms that locate in areas far from Pasig river are also required to pay the clearance fee.

BFAD, Bautista said takes 90 to 120 days to process the application for certification of product registration because the agency lacks manpower while the inspection fee of the bureau of fire protection is costly and lengthy.