"We are pleased that the administrative burden on business is consistently decreasing every year. This is due both to the success of the changes we are making to improve the business environment and to the efforts of other institutions to reduce the burden on business through legislation. Therefore, we will strive to ensure that the proportionate reduction of administrative burdens continues to be a priority for improving the business environment," said Aušrinė Armonaitė, the Minister of the Economy and Innovation.
According to the Administrative Burden Monitoring Report for the first half of 2022, of the 13 institutions reporting data, 9 have reduced their administrative burden and 4 have increased it.
The most significant reductions in administrative burden were made by the State Tax Inspectorate (€5.835 million), the Ministry of Environment (€3.363 million), the Ministry of Social Security and Labour (€212.6 thousand), and the Lithuanian Geological Survey (€194.25 thousand).
The main contributor to the reduction of the administrative burden was the abolition of the obligation for operators of fuel facilities to carry out an inventory of petroleum products, which resulted in savings of €5.57 million for business. Manufacturers and importers supplying oil, vehicles, electrical and electronic equipment, batteries and accumulators to the domestic market will now keep a product register in the information system on a quarterly basis instead of a monthly basis, which has reduced the administrative burden by €1.85 million. The administrative burden was further reduced by almost €740,000 due to the abolition of the requirement to no longer provide a general building examination and act in certain cases when completing a building.
In the first half of 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Transport and Communications increased the administrative burden.
For the report, the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation also analysed the authorities' compliance with the "two-date" rule, according to which a legal act must enter into force on 1 May or 1 November. The report notes that this rule was respected in 43% of the cases analysed.
In order to reduce the burden on business, the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation has initiated changes to the methodology for administrative burdens on business and regularly provides practical training for drafters on how to assess and reduce the costs of adapting to regulation. It has also carried out an analysis of the effectiveness of existing better regulation measures in regulating business conditions and the institutional framework for their implementation, in cooperation with the Government's Centre for Strategic Analysis (STRATA).
The Administrative Burden Monitoring Report for the first half of 2022 is available on the website of the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation.
