Online Reporter
WHILE the business sector complains about regulation, many of the guidelines in place are needed, with the food industry probably having to face the most since their products need to be safe and healthy despite often having short shelf lives and arising from animals that in turn must be healthy.
Many of these regulations for the food industries arose piecemeal as new threats were identified and new methods of testing arose, and often someone farming livestock, processing or selling food products has to assemble a file of licences and other permissions from a range of agencies and pay a different fee at every one.
While the businesses might want to have some of the regulatory requirements dropped and inspections eased, many of their customers rather like the idea that standards are set and that inspectors make sure that the standards are kept.
We are, after all, dealing with products that we eat and drink.
But what everyone can agree on is that it should be possible to consolidate many regulations, preferably into a single permission or licence with a single fee.
Even if the fee is the same as the total once paid, having just one set of tests, one inspector and dealing with a single agency would dramatically simplify business.
If, through removal of duplication, it was possible to have a lower fee, and that seems to be likely, this would be a bonus.
But the main gain would be to have all those regulations that have been building up since Queen Victoria combined and cleaned up and made relevant for the third decade of the 21st century.
This is what Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Mthuli Ncube appeared to be promising over the weekend, with the Government now giving active consideration to the beef, dairy and food processing industries where the regulatory clogging can be severe, even if the regulations are necessary.
The minister said once success was achieved in these three, and they seem the most complex to sort out, the programme would be extended to the rest of the economy.
There will be cases of regulation that all businesses have to follow, often involving staff safety and staff health as well as customer safety and health.
And then there are regulations that pertain to just one or two industries, although when testing is required it should be possible to consolidate the laboratories and testing facilities.
If a range of inspections are needed one properly trained inspector should suffice, with a list of what is needed to check, rather than a platoon of them coming in each with a different list.
Modern technology can assemble combined databases and covert a range of requirements into a single list, unique for each business on that database if necessary.
At the same time, the central Government will need to involve local government as it consolidates and customises the regulations for the industries that deal in food.
Local authorities tend to hit these businesses with multiple licences, the general business licence plus special licences that pertain to health and safety issues.
Again we can see why these are required, but it should be possible to have a single licence and single fee. At the same time it is more than likely that there will be duplication between requirements of central Government agencies and what a local authority is expecting.
For the consumer, and for that matter the business owner, it does not really matter who is enforcing a particular safety issue so long as the issue does matter and is not simply a bureaucratic demand to expand someone’s importance.
Minister Mthuli made a serious distinction between taxes and fees paid by businesses. Taxes, he correctly noted, are paid to central Government through Zimra and are generally fairly simple: customs and excise duties, VAT and income or corporate taxes.
And you can pay all of these at the same counter, or online at the same website. Zimra has made a lot of progress in simplifying what is for many an unpleasant business and queuing to pay taxes is now largely in the past.
The regulatory fees are harder to keep track of, and often a person might not realise they are subject to a particular regulation until an inspector comes to call, and they find the collection of certificates on their wall misses one critical agency out.
So besides the consolidation, there is that need for someone setting up a bakery, for example, to be able to get instantly the regulations that apply, plus a lay person’s explanation in ordinary language even if this misses some of the extreme legal niceties, and a single form to fill in and a single fee to pay.
There could also be a simple single list of what they are expected to do to keep within the law, such as keeping kitchens and sales rooms clean.
So while everyone complains about the fees, and about the multitude of requirements, a lot of regulations are still needed, although they need to be consolidated and preferably under one agency with one point of contact for the business.
While fees are designed to cover costs, consolidation should not only simplify the ease of doing business but reduce the checking and enforcement costs, and so allow the single consolidated fee to be lower.
