Legislation: ‘Ease of Doing Business Bill’ proposals out for comment

The DA’s Henro Kruger intends tabling an Ease of Doing Business Bill in Parliament with the aim of ensuring that the socio-economic impact assessment of proposed new legislation takes cognisance of ‘the cost of red tape’, reports Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. This is according to Friday’s Government Gazette notice calling for input from members of the public on an explanatory summary of the Bill. Apparently, the unit responsible for ‘vetting’ these assessments (located in the Presidency) is falling short of the mark. Against that backdrop, the summary appears to point to a role for ‘Ministers, MPs, parliamentary committees and self-regulatory bodies’ in minimising the potential for regulatory red tape to stymie small business development and economic growth. Interested and affected parties have until 12 April to comment.

According to Parliamentary Monitoring Group records, the previous Parliament’s National Assembly Committee on Small Business Development deemed the scope of Kruger’s similarly motivated 2016 Red Tape Impact Assessment Bill too ‘broad’ to be handled by the Department of Small Business Development and well beyond its mandate. Consequently, although the Bill was not rejected, it was found ‘undesirable’. This is noting that every private member’s Bill is subjected to a vote by the National Assembly committee concerned on the desirability of processing it further. At the time, members appeared to be of the view that Parliament might need to consider where such a piece of proposed new legislation would be most suitably placed.