Reducing bureaucracy: Much still to be done

DIHK President Eric Schweizer describes the current draft of the Bureaucracy Relief Act III as "a start to urgently needed relief." However, in his view, much remains to be done.

This article is part of the special feature on bureaucratic madness in the skilled trades.

With its newly presented draft for a third bureaucracy reduction law (BEG III), the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is taking "necessary steps towards simplifying administrative processes." This is the view of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK). DIHK President Eric Schweitzer assesses the draft "as a first step towards urgently needed relief ." He emphasizes that "businesses are particularly impatient when it comes to bureaucracy, as we know from our surveys." "If the proposals become law, they will come at just the right time."

Digitalization brings simplifications

Given the challenging economic environment, reducing bureaucracy provides " positive impetus ." This includes, in particular, approaches that focus more on digitalization . According to the DIHK president, the electronic certificate of incapacity for work and the simplified archiving of electronic tax documents represent "necessary steps towards simplifying administrative processes."

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Shorten retention periods for documents

The actual extent of the relief for businesses will depend on the specific implementation. "Either way, it will unfortunately take some time before these and some other measures in the package reduce the still very high bureaucratic burden on companies ," fears Schweitzer. After all, in many cases, public administrations first need to be enabled to implement electronic procedures across the board. "This applies particularly to tax procedures," the DIHK president points out. "Therefore, it would be good and consistent if the retention periods for paper documents were also shortened."

This could, in particular, ease the burden on small and medium-sized businesses. "There's still a lot to do," warns Schweitzer. "We at the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) are happy to put forward further proposals for a Bureaucracy Reduction Act IV."