E-governance: A priority agenda for the government
Shamsul Arefin | Saturday, 7 June 2008
THE customs procedures in the ports of Chittagong and Mongla as well as in the airports and land ports are complicated, slow and bureaucratic. the customs officials, in this regard, have considerable discretionary power in estimating the tariffs of goods particularly when there is even a minor discrepancy in HS Code. They are then able to influence the processing of import or export and that leaves room for corruption. The Chittagong port, which handles 75 per cent of the country's import and 85 per cent of the total import and export, is considered to be one of the most inefficient and corrupt ports in Asia.
According to a TIB report, the import and export process including clearance, loading, unloading and release/forward of goods has been extremely bureaucratic and bribes are rampant at several administrative points. On average, more than half of the costs incurred to release containers at ports are bribe. As a result, it has been contributing to the cost of doing business.
One of the main pressures that our exporters are now encountering is to maintain the "Lead Time". So, exporters can save some days if the system supports by way of making documents processing online among exporters' bank, customs house and foreign port of unloading. It takes 10/12 days for getting a consignment released from a US port after the consignment reaches there after 32/35 days; and the lead time can be shortened through allowing scanning and processing documents online. Again, by increasing efficiency of our seaports, we can increase our revenue allowing these ports as gateway to Nepal, Bhutan even India, particularly, for the 'seven sisters' in north eastern region of India. Again, arrangements can be made to pay duty, VAT etc., against imported consignments at the counter of the importers' own banks that open L/Cs, wherefrom documents can also be processed/forwarded to the customs online.
Hearteningly, things have changed for the better during the past several months after the moves taken by the authorities concerned following the installation in office of the present caretaker governments. Such developments should further be consolidated in the coming days through efforts for putting in place the system of e-governance in related developments.
Tax administration: For submission of tax returns, one needs to go to the concerned dealing persons. The system of filling tax return form is outmoded and requires a taxpayer to fill a printed form by hand. There is, however, scope for imposing differing taxes on similar households because the officials have discretionary powers in assessing the level of taxation. This makes the sector susceptible to corruption. Taxpayers are often forced to appeal through a legal system which is cumbersome and time consuming. The tax base of our country is extremely low-there are only around 1.5 million registered taxpayers out of more than 140 million people. Again, are all the registered taxpayers paying taxes? Why does the government need to allow special tax rebate to tax evaders every year disappointing sincere taxpayers, who have to pay tax at a very high rate? The problem here relates move to a malfunctioning, if not dysfunctional system than to anything else. Hence, the need is strong for effecting fundamental institutional or systemic changes for promoting the culture of tax compliance.
Doing Business in Bangladesh Report 2007 by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) shows that entrepreneurs must make 17 payments on an average and spend 400 hours to complete formalities with regard to tax.
The tax return needs to be submitted on the Net and the system needs to be there to pay tax through electronic devices like ATM, CDM etc., or through commercial banks.
Land registration: Property rights are safeguarded on paper. But the title deed of a piece of land is forged or the same piece of land has been sold to different persons in a fraudulent manner etc. These problems are the result of the paper-based, inadequate and unreliable recording system.
Again, even if everything goes well, it takes a long time to get the original title deed because of traditional record keeping system. Taking of bribes is widespread in the buying, selling and surveying of land. Again, the system of buying, selling and mortgaging of land is highly bureaucratic, because one needs to depend on the sub-registrar who considers himself the king of the land registry office and exercises huge discretionary power.
The World Bank & IFC in their 'Doing Business in Bangladesh Report 2007' shows that registering property requires a company to go through an average of eight administrative procedures which take an average of 425 days and cost 10 per cent of the property value.
Land registration needs to be done through Notary Public Offices or any other government appointed agencies who will have online facility with the land registry office as it is the case with brokerage houses that are connected with DSE, CSE and CDBL. Here, the government should not fix any 'notional value' which is, in most cases, much lower than the value at which actual transactions make plan. All concerned do, again, prefer going by the 'notional value' to showing the actual market value of their immovable property because of the high registration costs and related charges. The existing practices do call for an overhaul, in order to ensure transparency in related transfer deeds. It is encouraging to note her that some good moves have recently been initiated by the government in this connection. Such moves do need to be followed up by other measures on a sustained basis.
Police department: The Police department needs to maintain a database of all citizens (computerisation of current voters' list and birth and death registration will facilitate it), allow people to lodge complaints through the Net having minimum/standard time for disposal, and make photograph of criminals available on the Web.
Investment, licenses and public utilities: The World Bank & IFC Enterprise Survey Bangladesh 2007 says it takes almost 80 days on average to obtain an electricity connection, 153 days to obtain a telephone connection and 42 days to get construction-related permission. World Bank & lFC Doing Business in Bangladesh Report 2008 says building a warehouse in this country requires a company to go through an average of 14 administrative procedures which take an average of 252 days and cost 751 per cent of income per capita.
The Board of Investment (BoI) can provide one-stop service by arranging all permissions using ICT network technologies.
On the other hand, allowing licence/permission for any large investment requires approval from the top of the government involving a long process and time. Since permission from the high-level is required, there is presumably pressure of high-level enticement.
People's expectations from the present caretaker government are:
a)Holding a fair election ensuring that no vote rigging happens and no forged vote is cast;
b)Restoring democratic environment ensuring that mass people may take part in voting spontaneously to elect the leaders they want; and
c)Handing over the power to the government of the people, by the people and really for the people.
Though the issues are a few in number, the agenda for implementing these issues are not few. We can still say that for addressing the above-mentioned expectations/issues, the main agenda should be to develop appropriate systems like the voting/electoral system with computerised voters' list, all voters having national ID cards, transparent ballot box to check forged votes etc.
It is high time for the caretaker government (CTG) to implement e-governance in order to address all these issues. Budget is round the corner. Considering our limited resources, government expenditure this time should be mainly for building such infrastructure/system that will help enhance our capacity and efficiency. So, the CTG needs to allocate fund to install ICT in different government departments to ensure e-governance for the sake of good and efficient government. Until the appropriate system/infrastructure is in place, the CTG need not bother for election under any pressure from either internal narcissistic group or external forces; otherwise, we will go back to the legacy of corruption and systemic irregularities (for which many otherwise innocent citizens) will suffer, making the entire period of the CTG go in vain. The CTG, however, needs to prove that it is sincerely working in line with implementing its priority agendas.
Investor Chronicle from the UK has identified the country as a "Hot Emerging Market". JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, etc., have identified Bangladesh as one of the potential Asian countries for investment. "Asian Tiger Capital Partners (ATCP)", a group of young expatriate Bangladeshi entrepreneurs experienced in consulting, banking and investment abroad, in the presence of former British High Commissioner in Dhaka, presented their plans to launch a US$ 100 million private equity funds to be invested in Bangladesh a few days back. This group seriously believes that foreign direct investment in the country could increase tenfold from the current figure of around US$ 700 million to US$ 7.0 billion by 2015. The report prepared by ATCP has noted that currently several very large FDI proposals (total worth US$ 9.7 billion) are pending for decision by the government. These include investment proposals made by Indian conglomerate Tata, the Abu Dhabi Group from the UAE, Global Oil and Energy Ltd from the UK, Azimat Corporation from Malaysia and Contech Ltd, Mittal Group etc. Most interestingly, ATCP also believes that given better information and elimination of information asymmetries, global investors and multinational financial institutions will find Bangladesh as the next great untapped investment opportunity in Asia.
So, it is indeed time to look forward and go ahead. No doubt, we all want to see our beloved country as one of the top global commercial hubs competing with Singapore and Hong Kong. From the enthusiastic FDI proposals of renowned global companies, we can have that confidence. Given the current scenario, we don't want to see our country going backward or remaining at a stagnant position over the years (economic growth position, for the last couple of years, has been remaining at either 6.0 per cent or moving half per cent point upward or going half per cent point downward) due to rampant corruption and abuse of power.
The writer is senior vice-president of Shahjalal Islami Bank
According to a TIB report, the import and export process including clearance, loading, unloading and release/forward of goods has been extremely bureaucratic and bribes are rampant at several administrative points. On average, more than half of the costs incurred to release containers at ports are bribe. As a result, it has been contributing to the cost of doing business.
One of the main pressures that our exporters are now encountering is to maintain the "Lead Time". So, exporters can save some days if the system supports by way of making documents processing online among exporters' bank, customs house and foreign port of unloading. It takes 10/12 days for getting a consignment released from a US port after the consignment reaches there after 32/35 days; and the lead time can be shortened through allowing scanning and processing documents online. Again, by increasing efficiency of our seaports, we can increase our revenue allowing these ports as gateway to Nepal, Bhutan even India, particularly, for the 'seven sisters' in north eastern region of India. Again, arrangements can be made to pay duty, VAT etc., against imported consignments at the counter of the importers' own banks that open L/Cs, wherefrom documents can also be processed/forwarded to the customs online.
Hearteningly, things have changed for the better during the past several months after the moves taken by the authorities concerned following the installation in office of the present caretaker governments. Such developments should further be consolidated in the coming days through efforts for putting in place the system of e-governance in related developments.
Tax administration: For submission of tax returns, one needs to go to the concerned dealing persons. The system of filling tax return form is outmoded and requires a taxpayer to fill a printed form by hand. There is, however, scope for imposing differing taxes on similar households because the officials have discretionary powers in assessing the level of taxation. This makes the sector susceptible to corruption. Taxpayers are often forced to appeal through a legal system which is cumbersome and time consuming. The tax base of our country is extremely low-there are only around 1.5 million registered taxpayers out of more than 140 million people. Again, are all the registered taxpayers paying taxes? Why does the government need to allow special tax rebate to tax evaders every year disappointing sincere taxpayers, who have to pay tax at a very high rate? The problem here relates move to a malfunctioning, if not dysfunctional system than to anything else. Hence, the need is strong for effecting fundamental institutional or systemic changes for promoting the culture of tax compliance.
Doing Business in Bangladesh Report 2007 by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) shows that entrepreneurs must make 17 payments on an average and spend 400 hours to complete formalities with regard to tax.
The tax return needs to be submitted on the Net and the system needs to be there to pay tax through electronic devices like ATM, CDM etc., or through commercial banks.
Land registration: Property rights are safeguarded on paper. But the title deed of a piece of land is forged or the same piece of land has been sold to different persons in a fraudulent manner etc. These problems are the result of the paper-based, inadequate and unreliable recording system.
Again, even if everything goes well, it takes a long time to get the original title deed because of traditional record keeping system. Taking of bribes is widespread in the buying, selling and surveying of land. Again, the system of buying, selling and mortgaging of land is highly bureaucratic, because one needs to depend on the sub-registrar who considers himself the king of the land registry office and exercises huge discretionary power.
The World Bank & IFC in their 'Doing Business in Bangladesh Report 2007' shows that registering property requires a company to go through an average of eight administrative procedures which take an average of 425 days and cost 10 per cent of the property value.
Land registration needs to be done through Notary Public Offices or any other government appointed agencies who will have online facility with the land registry office as it is the case with brokerage houses that are connected with DSE, CSE and CDBL. Here, the government should not fix any 'notional value' which is, in most cases, much lower than the value at which actual transactions make plan. All concerned do, again, prefer going by the 'notional value' to showing the actual market value of their immovable property because of the high registration costs and related charges. The existing practices do call for an overhaul, in order to ensure transparency in related transfer deeds. It is encouraging to note her that some good moves have recently been initiated by the government in this connection. Such moves do need to be followed up by other measures on a sustained basis.
Police department: The Police department needs to maintain a database of all citizens (computerisation of current voters' list and birth and death registration will facilitate it), allow people to lodge complaints through the Net having minimum/standard time for disposal, and make photograph of criminals available on the Web.
Investment, licenses and public utilities: The World Bank & IFC Enterprise Survey Bangladesh 2007 says it takes almost 80 days on average to obtain an electricity connection, 153 days to obtain a telephone connection and 42 days to get construction-related permission. World Bank & lFC Doing Business in Bangladesh Report 2008 says building a warehouse in this country requires a company to go through an average of 14 administrative procedures which take an average of 252 days and cost 751 per cent of income per capita.
The Board of Investment (BoI) can provide one-stop service by arranging all permissions using ICT network technologies.
On the other hand, allowing licence/permission for any large investment requires approval from the top of the government involving a long process and time. Since permission from the high-level is required, there is presumably pressure of high-level enticement.
People's expectations from the present caretaker government are:
a)Holding a fair election ensuring that no vote rigging happens and no forged vote is cast;
b)Restoring democratic environment ensuring that mass people may take part in voting spontaneously to elect the leaders they want; and
c)Handing over the power to the government of the people, by the people and really for the people.
Though the issues are a few in number, the agenda for implementing these issues are not few. We can still say that for addressing the above-mentioned expectations/issues, the main agenda should be to develop appropriate systems like the voting/electoral system with computerised voters' list, all voters having national ID cards, transparent ballot box to check forged votes etc.
It is high time for the caretaker government (CTG) to implement e-governance in order to address all these issues. Budget is round the corner. Considering our limited resources, government expenditure this time should be mainly for building such infrastructure/system that will help enhance our capacity and efficiency. So, the CTG needs to allocate fund to install ICT in different government departments to ensure e-governance for the sake of good and efficient government. Until the appropriate system/infrastructure is in place, the CTG need not bother for election under any pressure from either internal narcissistic group or external forces; otherwise, we will go back to the legacy of corruption and systemic irregularities (for which many otherwise innocent citizens) will suffer, making the entire period of the CTG go in vain. The CTG, however, needs to prove that it is sincerely working in line with implementing its priority agendas.
Investor Chronicle from the UK has identified the country as a "Hot Emerging Market". JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, etc., have identified Bangladesh as one of the potential Asian countries for investment. "Asian Tiger Capital Partners (ATCP)", a group of young expatriate Bangladeshi entrepreneurs experienced in consulting, banking and investment abroad, in the presence of former British High Commissioner in Dhaka, presented their plans to launch a US$ 100 million private equity funds to be invested in Bangladesh a few days back. This group seriously believes that foreign direct investment in the country could increase tenfold from the current figure of around US$ 700 million to US$ 7.0 billion by 2015. The report prepared by ATCP has noted that currently several very large FDI proposals (total worth US$ 9.7 billion) are pending for decision by the government. These include investment proposals made by Indian conglomerate Tata, the Abu Dhabi Group from the UAE, Global Oil and Energy Ltd from the UK, Azimat Corporation from Malaysia and Contech Ltd, Mittal Group etc. Most interestingly, ATCP also believes that given better information and elimination of information asymmetries, global investors and multinational financial institutions will find Bangladesh as the next great untapped investment opportunity in Asia.
So, it is indeed time to look forward and go ahead. No doubt, we all want to see our beloved country as one of the top global commercial hubs competing with Singapore and Hong Kong. From the enthusiastic FDI proposals of renowned global companies, we can have that confidence. Given the current scenario, we don't want to see our country going backward or remaining at a stagnant position over the years (economic growth position, for the last couple of years, has been remaining at either 6.0 per cent or moving half per cent point upward or going half per cent point downward) due to rampant corruption and abuse of power.
The writer is senior vice-president of Shahjalal Islami Bank