Bureaucracy hinders businesses several permits for one export
Posted on October 14th, 2017
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
Ceylon Today
Sri Lanka’s bureaucratic approval processes, which impinge on the competitiveness of businesses, were highlighted by Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) Chief Economist Anushka Wijesinha, at a seminar in Colombo on Thursday.
There are many complains from investors an exporters regarding same issue where Sri Lankan government Officers are a hindrance to any export.
I wrote about this when EDB held a promotional drive in Galle where everyone admitted the Indonesia and Vietnam are ahead of Sri Lanka ion export growth .
Read
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2017/09/25/sad-state-of-affairs-of-sri-lankan-exports/
We started a shipyard to build boats and now we have an order for Maldives which is being finalised .In order to get the Duty free facility to import materials which are not manufactured in Sri Lanka ,company inquired from Sri Lanka Customs to provide duty waiver and S” Vat facility .as the boat is for export .
Customs wants approval from Minister of Industries hence our officers submitted an application form to Ministry of Industries to provide a letter that the yard is capable of carrying out the order.
As per the Bureaucratic procedure ministry is supposed to send someone to carry out the inspection of the yard .It is 2 weeks since the application was submitted and the officer kept promising and did not visit the yard ,I personally requested a consultant of the ministry who promised to send someone and yet the officer did not visit the yard despite many reminders !
Yesterday ministry of Industries have asked the shipyard to obtain a letter from the Sri Lanka Ports Authority ( SLPA) to confirm that the equipment and materials to be imparted are for the boats !!
SLPA has nothing to do with the boat building and we are not sure why Ministry of industries is resorting to such delay tactics .
Many companies are facing such obstacles in getting various approvals from various ministries despite the fact the government keep promising the provide relief by way of getting rid of Bureaucracy.
We need to learn from Vietnam !
Dr Sarath Obeysekera