Today: Reduce cost of doing business

This letter was sent to Today paper on 1 Feb 2012 (but not published yet)

Reduce cost of doing business

Mr. James Ang (Crutch mentality in businesses, 1 Feb) said that our

business federations should not just lobby for subsidies, grants and 

tax incentives, but get their members to innovate, raise productivity and 

explore new markets overseas.

I also recall similar calls by our government leaders on innovation and 

productivity for as long as I can remember. 

I have run a small business for three years and wish to share my experience 

about some of the mindless regulations and processes that increase 

the cost of doing business in Singapore:

1. Our government agencies require businesses to submit requests and 

compliance returns using their online processes. Their websites are extremely 

complicated and each process can take hours to someone who is not familiar. 

Mistakes are made and have to be rectified. A more sensible alternative is to 

allow the public to make their submission using a manual form, which can be 

faxed to the agency, and for a staff to spend a few minutes to handle the data entry.

2. Many forms from government agencies ask for too much information for relatively 

routine matters. These agencies should realize that the time spent by administrative 

staff is not free.

3. Businesses have to compute and show GST for each invoice

and to account for the input and output GST on their quarterly returns to

the tax authority. The compliance adds to the cost of doing business. It 

can be reduced significantly by some simplification to their processes.

4. Many businesses still have to make payment by cheques, due to our archaic 

payment processes. Many countries have moved to electronic payments long ago.

As long as our government agencies are not mindful of the cost and burden that

they impose on the business sector, there will be the perpetual call 

from the business associations for financial assistance.

Tan Kin Lian