Illustrative stock photo (source: TASR)
Hotels and other accommodation facilities will not need to keep a certain number of hangers in wardrobes in their rooms to win a certain number of stars any more as of end of October. The scrapping of the regulation on the categorisation of accommodation facilities is one of 115 measures the Igor Matovič government has adopted within the Lex Korona legislation this summer. Their aim is to reduce the red tape burdening entrepreneurs in Slovakia and a further reduction of red tape in Slovakia's business sector is expected.
“Verbal determination of Igor Matovič's new government is great, but they have been in power for too short a period to forecast whether the changes they make will be revolutionary,” said Martin Vlachynský of the think tank INESS.
The think tank publishes its Bureaucracy Index every year on the occasion of the International Bureaucracy Day, falling on September 29.
Bureaucracy Index has decreased
At the beginning of 2020, the bureaucratic burden of a model entrepreneur in Slovakia - a micro-company with four employees involved in metalworking - accounted for 217 hours. Compared with 2019, the index improved by four hours.
From the total burden, red tape linked with running a company accounted for 47 percent, followed by employment issues at 39 percent, legislative changes with 5 percent and other reasons with 9 percent.
Compared with other participating countries, Slovakia ended second with Northern Macedonia placing first with 154 hours. The Czech Republic was third with 223 hours, followed by Lithuania with 271 hours, Italy with 312 hours and Spain with 369 hours.
INESS assesses the pro-business packages prepared by the Economy Ministry of the previous government positively, but it opines that they are too small to bring about any big changes for entrepreneurs. Thus the think tank hopes that the change in the government after the February 2020 election will bring a more substantial reduction in red tape for the business sector.
New approach
The government is promising a shift in approach to the red tape of the business sector. The cabinet is now working on the second anti-bureaucracy package. It is expected that the measures either already adopted or planned will further reduce the index next year.
“We want to focus on two areas: the reduction of existing bureaucracy and setting up the system so that it prevents red tape from increasing,” said Ján Oravec, the state secretary at the Economy Ministry and the former head of Entrepreneurs Association of Slovakia.
