World Bank Doing Business 2012 report: Highlights bribes, illegal structures

 In the World Bank International Financial Corporation’s Doing Business 2012: Doing Business in a More Transparent World report, T&T ranked 68. Jamaica ranked 88. St Lucia topped the survey at spot 52. Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business, from 1 to 183. A high ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. This index averages the country’s percentile rankings on ten topics, made up of a variety of indicators, giving equal weight to each topic. The rankings for all economies are benchmarked to June 2011. 

The Doing Business 2012 report gave the example of how the ease of doing business index is constructed. In Korea, it takes five procedures, seven days and 14.6 per cent of annual income per capita in fees, to open a business. There is no minimum capital required. On these four indicators, Korea ranks in the 18th, 14th, 53rd and 0 percentiles. So on average, Korea ranks in the 21st percentile on the ease of starting a business. It ranks in the 12th percentile on getting credit, 25th percentile on paying taxes, 8th percentile on enforcing contracts, 7th percentile on resolving insolvency, and so on.

What does it take to start a business in T&T? According to data collected, starting a business there requires nine procedures, takes 43 days, costs 0.9 per cent of income per capita and requires paid-in minimum capital of 0.0 per cent of income per capita. 

Dealing with construction permits

According to the Doing Business 2012 report on T&T, “Regulation of construction is critical to protect the public. It needs to be efficient, to avoid excessive constraints on a sector that plays an important part in every economy. Where complying with building regulations is excessively costly in time and money, many builders opt out. They may pay bribes to pass inspections or simply build illegally, leading to hazardous construction that puts public safety at risk. Where compliance is simple, straightforward and inexpensive, everyone is better off. 

What do the indicators cover? 

“Doing Business records the procedures, time and cost for a business to obtain all the necessary approvals to build a simple commercial warehouse in the economy’s largest business city, connect it to basic utilities and register the property so that it can be used as collateral or transferred to another entity. The ranking on the ease of dealing with construction permits is the simple average of the percentile rankings on its component indicators: procedures, time and cost.”

What does it take to comply with the formalities to build a warehouse in T&T? 

According to data collected by Doing Business, dealing with construction permits there requires 17 procedures, takes 297 days and costs 6.0 per cent of income per capita. Globally, T&T stands at 93 in the ranking of 183 economies on the ease of dealing with construction permits. 

What does it take to obtain a new electricity connection?

 The data collected by Doing Business states that getting electricity in T&T requires five procedures, takes 61 days and costs 7.9 per cent of income per capita. Globally, T&T stands at 24 in the ranking of 183 economies on the ease of getting electricity.

How long does it take to register a property?

Registering property in T&T requires eight procedures, takes 162 days and costs 7.0 per cent of the property value. Globally, T&T stands at 175 in the ranking of 183 economies on the ease of registering property. 

On credit and taxes

T&T stands at 40 in the ranking of 183 economies on the ease of getting credit. And at 24 in the ranking of 183 economies on the strength of investor protection index. On average, firms make 39 tax payments a year, spend 210 hours a year filing, preparing and paying taxes, and pay total taxes amounting to 21.6 per cent of profit. According to data collected by Doing Business, exporting a standard container of goods requires five documents, takes 14 days and costs $843. Importing the same container of goods requires six documents, takes 19 days and costs $1,260.

T&T stands at 52 in the ranking of 183 economies on the ease of trading across borders. Doing Business stated that enforcing a contract requires 42 procedures, takes 1,340 days and costs 33.5 per cent of the value of the claim. On the ease of enforcing contracts, T&T stands at 169 in the ranking of 183 economies. Resolving insolvency takes 4.0 years on average and costs 25 per cent of the debtor’s estate. The average recovery rate is 17.9 cents on the dollar. T&T stands at 133 in the ranking of 183 economies on the ease of resolving insolvency.