Measures to ease procedural delays in doing businesses

Charumini DE SILVA

Sri Lanka is now growing with confidence and sustainability. However, there are many areas that should be further strengthened and improved, Central Bank Deputy Governor Dharma Dheerasinghe said.

He said the country’s aim is to achieve eightieth rank in the Doing Business Index.

Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Central Bank Deputy Governor Dharma Dheerasinghe at the seminar. Picture by Chaminda Hittatiya

Sri Lanka is currently placed 102 out of 183 countries.

The Index is monitored by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. “The sound economic environment will enable us to reach our targets in due time if the other elements of this chain could also be improved,” he said.

The index is looking at nine key elements such as starting business, dealing with construction permits, registering a property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across boards, enforcing contracts and closing businesses.

A seminar organized by the Central Bank yesterday in this regard was a concept of Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa he said. There were several presentations where Ministry Secretaries and senior officials were present.

“With regard to easing the procedure of doing businesses in the country five aspects should be looked at such as number of procedures, time taken, cost involved, legislative provisions relating to property and other factors like documentary requirements,” Dheerasinghe said. “It is important to simplify the tax system further and make their proceedings more easier as it is still complicated for the public. The time is a crucial factor in all economic activities, thus we must utilize our resources at the best options to achieve a higher efficiency,” he said.

“Registering of property and other related activities needs to be improved further. Access to credit and increasing credit facility is another key challenge in uplifting the doing business ranking of our country”, he said.

More investor protection measures with legislative reforms are required.

The delays in the Customs should be reduced, while enhancing the facilities of EPF and ETF business registrations to be paid together without duplicating and introducing online payment systems,” he said.

Presidential Advisor Chandra Fernando said key institutions like Inland Revenue, CRIB, Securities and Exchange Commission, Customs, Labour Department and other institutions are revising their procedures to make it easier for investors with the aim of achieving the eightieth rank or even better.

More support should be given to exporters in their administrative matters. Implementing more one-stop-shop (OSS) concepts are vital to fast track doing businesses in the country.

The Colombo Municipality Council (CMC) is practising the OSS concept to ease permits for construction procedures and speed up the systems. The Board of Investment (BOI) is also hoping to have OSS concept to ease certain matters in setting up BOI certified companies.