Thousands of regulations subject to repeal, amendment, NCC says
OVER 18,000 outdated government regulations across several agencies are being reviewed for repeal, with the numbers expected to grow, the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) said.
The government is seeking to trim redundant and contradictory orders and circulars that only add unnecessary layers of red tape to doing business in the country, the NCC said in a presentation.
According to data presented by the NCC at an Asian Institute of Management conference on competitiveness and inclusive economic growth, there are a total of 18,822 regulations undergoing review, while 3,777 have completed the review.
These were the total submissions of at least 14 government departments and attached agencies, with some rules dating back as far as the Commonwealth period. Upon completing review, these orders will be delisted, repealed, consolidated, or amended.
Guillermo M. Luz, co- chairman of the NCC for the private sector, said that the large number of orders under review is a recognition of the burden they could cause to the private sector.
“I think that’s good. That means they recognize they’re overburdening individuals and entrepreneurs and businesses with so many rules and regulations that even the agencies recognize that cleaning up is good,” he told reporters during the sideline of the event.
Project Repeal, which was launched in June, is part of a larger commitment that would eventually repeal irrelevant republic acts and orders of local government units ( LGU), but for now is focused on outdated department administrative orders, joint administrative orders, memorandum orders, and circulars.
On June 13, NCC held the first Project Repeal Day wherein eight government agencies formalized their commitment in the initiative.
The eight main government agencies are the departments of trade and industry, finance, energy, budget and management, tourism, and labor and employment, as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.
“Since then, more agencies have joined and it’s also the new agencies that are submitting their list and as we speak there are always workshops to go through these lists for other agencies.”
Mr. Luz said that the number almost doubled to at least 14 since then, including the Departments of Agriculture, Bureau of Customs, and attached agencies of the Department of Transportation, among others.