MANILA — To further improve the newly-ratified ‘reinforced’ Anti-Red Tape Bill, Senator Ralph Recto on Thursday endorsed the inclusion of a freeze on fees, an “anti-epal” provision, and exempting one-person proprietorships from paying fire inspection fees in the promulgation of the bill’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR).
Recto was one of the lead authors of “The Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018” which was ratified by the Senate Wednesday.
On the freeze on fees, he proposed that no price increase should be executed on fees for the shortened process.
“It can be argued that if we cut the process, then we should also cut the price, or at the very least keep the status quo. If red tape will be cut, there will be less paper work and fewer signatories, then the cost should remain as it is, if not go down,” Recto said.
“Ease of doing business should lead to easy-on-the-pocket expenses,” the lawmaker said.
Recto also wanted to exempt “single proprietors,” such as knowledge-based workers, creative people, artists, non-PRC registered professionals in one-man firms, and one-person e-commerce owners who work on their own” from securing fire safety clearances.
Recto noted that one-man proprietorships are usually home-based and do not have a physical office, thus there is no need for fire safety inspections.
“Kung writer ka at bedspacer ka lang, kailangan bang dumaan sa fire inspection ang kamang inuupahan mo? (If you are a writer and just a bedspacer, does the bed your renting need to undergo fire inspection?)” he said.
Lastly, Recto believes “anti-epal” provision is needed on the bill to institutionalize the design of business permits than the current “personalistic” design that features the name and the likeness of the issuing authority.
“Why can’t we design a politics-neutral, politico-blind plaka that will last long and will not be wasted if the head of the LGU, whose face and name are displayed on it, will not be re-elected? Or better still, honor the receipt as the permit itself and do away with ‘burloloys,” Recto added.
In pushing for the inclusion of the said provisions in the bill’s IRR, Recto hopes that it would further spare businesses from spending billions of pesos and millions of man-hours yearly to comply with government licensing procedures and “cure a disease which has metastasized all over the bureaucracy.” (Jose Cielito Reganit with reports from Angela Geronimo-OJT/PNA)
