Finance Minister’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ forum praised by exporters
View(s):Some of the entrepreneurs and industrialists present at the 10th Forum of “Ease of doing business” organised by the Ministry of Finance, say that this is a unique and results-oriented exercise.
They made these comments to the Business Times on the sidelines of the forum held last week with Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake presiding, at the Old Times Building in Colombo.
The many problems of the entrepreneurs which were listed reveals how the whole regulatory machinery causes delays, thus leading to corruption causing immense problems and excess spending.
However many of the cases were solved instantly by the Minister by confronting the relevant state officials in solving the problem. Mr Karunanayake indicated that some of the difficulties brought before them involves government revenue and they have to be mindful of that important factor while solving the industry and business people’s woes.
As certain projects are to be approved by several state agencies the delays are inevitable and therefore it was felt that all these agencies need to be pooled together and the approval to be given through one agency.
This was clearly apparent when the Minister discussed the major difficulties confronted by the clay tile manufacturing industry. Clay is the essential raw material for the tile industry. Due to obtaining approval from various state agencies, tile industrialists find it extremely difficulty in getting a permit to mine clay, as clay mining is banned without a permit.
Baptist Fernando, President, All Island Clay Roofing Tile Manufacturers Association (AICRTMA), urged the Finance Minister to work out a process to ensure a continuous supply of clay for their industry because at present obtaining this essential raw material legally is extremely difficulty and therefore they were compelled to obtain their requirements from illegal mining.
He said that permits are issued after the clearance is obtained from several government regulatory agencies while the illegal mining flourishes. He said that they have their own land which is rich with clay and requested the Minister to intervene to mine them legally.
The Minister was surprised to note the illegal mining of clay and why the illegal mining could not be eliminated.
Mr.Fernando said as far back as November last year their association has submitted seven applications for permits that would cover an area of around 10 acres but they were allowed only three permits that would cover about little more than 10 perches. If all their applications are permitted that clay would suffice for one year but if only the permitted extents are allowed this would suffice only for few days whereas this raw material is needed by 225 factories islandwide while the Wayamba Province alone has 165 factories.
Mr. Fernando, pointing out that each factory employs 10 families, urged the government to make it a policy to use clay tile for all the new government buildings in the backdrop of the government decision to ban the use of asbestos.
Mr. Karunanayake called for a quick report on the issue from all the relevant agencies in a bid to ensure a quick and workable solution.
Col. (retired) C. Weeratunga, Global Sea Food (Pvt) Ltd presenting their issue said that they are importing form trays to pack the re-processed frozen fish products for their special export order project and they were in the practice of importing the trays under HS Code 3923.10.90 (trays). But the Sri Lanka Customs notified them that the HS code has been changed to 3923.10.40 which is defined as boxes for which the tax component would be higher.
He showed the item which clearly resembled a tiny tray and told the forum that a custom officer asked some money – what could be implied as a bribe to settle the matter – but as he declined agree to this request, the matter is now being inquired and the three containers already in the Port were held under Customs custody.
The delay is costing them demurrage and huge legal fees by way of retaining counsel at the inquiry and by now that cost exceeds their profits from exporting the product.
Twenty such issues faced by the entrepreneurs and industries were taken up at the forum. Most of them were settled instantly with the agreement of the state officials present while in the case of those that could not be solved instantly, reports were called for from relevant state agencies with the instructions that they should be submitted in one week. -(QP)