WATCH: 7 ways DA bill will cut red tape for small businesses

Cape Town – A bill introduced to parliament by the Democratic Alliance points to seven ways government can ensure the playing field is conducive to small business growth in South Africa.

DA MP Henro Kruger, who tabled the Red Tape Impact Assessment Bill in February, gave Fin24 an example of how the bill would work.

“Take the Small Business Act,” he said. “They are going to have to take it out, assess it and see what the impact is of red tape on small business.”

Regarding mapping and preparing red tape impact statements, Kruger said the unit would take a bill and go through it with one aim:

“Where are all the obligations that are stated in this bill to business (and cost that)… If they say you must go twice a year to Sars office to get a tax clearance certificate, then they will cost that action.

“Then they will say, alright it cost let’s say R1000. But there’s (for example) 100 000 small businesses in South Africa, so just to get a tax certificate once a year costs business 100 million bucks. Can you see the enormous (cost), but we don’t know it at the moment. We just say, go get a tax certificate.”

“Tax certificates are important, but let’s just do it every second year, then we save R50m from the GDP that’s wasted.

“To tell that to an official is a bit of a problem, so we must legislate it.”

WATCH: DA MP on unintended consequences of laws that create red tape

The 7 ways the bill will cut red tape

The Red Tape Impact Assessment Bill aims to achieve seven outcomes:

1. To provide for the assessment of regulatory measures developed by the executive, the legislatures and self-regulatory bodies in all three spheres of government, in order for them to detect and reduce red tape and the cost of red tape for businesses

2. To provide for the establishment of administrative units to assist in the red tape impact assessment process and to prepare red tape impact statements

3. To provide for assistance to businesses in overcoming red tape challenges

4. To provide for the functions and powers of the administrative units

5. To provide for mapping and the preparation of red tape impact statements

6. To provide for the evaluation of existing regulatory measures by the executive and self-regulatory bodies in all three spheres of government

7. To provide for matters incidental thereto.

READ: The Red Tape Impact Assessment Bill