Red tape affects logistics services’ business efficiency

The DTI-Competitiveness Bureau and stakeholders from the logistics services sector jointly identified the regulations and procedures that adversely affect the ease and cost of doing business for the logistics services providers, which in turn pull down the competitiveness of the sector.

“We invited industry leaders and together we tackled the issues regarding excessive and redundant requirements to do business in the logistics sector. We came up with an inventory of permits and licenses that a logistics services provider (LSP) must secure first to be able to conduct a business. During the discussion, we determined several permits and licenses that are not necessary or simply redundant, which add ups to the length of time and cost of compliance. These make our LSPs less competitive,” Undersecretary Rowel S. Barba said.

Some of the permits include the accreditation issued by DTI for sea freight forwarders, accreditation by Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) for truckers, and accreditation by Civil Aviation Board for air freight forwarders. Also, LSPs complained of the pass thru fees imposed by several local government units (LGUs). The inventory of permits and licenses covered the specific requirements as provided by the LSPs that they need to comply, and was validated by the concerned government agencies. Both the government and logistics services sector agreed that there is a need to review existing regulations to eliminate red tape.

“The consensus of the group was to thoroughly review the issuances that served as bases of the requirements. It was also suggested to establish a single accreditation for LSPs that they can use whenever they transact with government, instead of per agency accreditation. The inventory will be submitted to Anti-Red Tape Authority (Arta) for review and action,” Usec Barba added.

The issues and recommendations during the focus group discussion will be presented in a panel discussion that will form part of the Logistics Services Philippines Conference and Exhibition on December 6-7, 2018 at the PICC. Panel members include Bureau of Customs, Department of Transportation, Department of Interior and Local Government, and other government agencies. /