ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) has initiated the publication of ‘the sludge series’ under which reports on the sludge involved in different activities would be published.
According to press statement issued by PIDE here Sunday, sludge generally refers to frictions involved in completing different activities that are being carried out for the benefit to economy and society.
The PIDE sludge series specifically focuses on friction and delays due to over-regulations and bureaucratic red tape, it said adding these deter investment in the country, hence cause a heavy cost on the economy.
The institute plans to publish reports on over 50 activities in the sludge series out of which eleven have been published so far.
Giving examples of sludge, it said these include complicated and lengthy application forms, time consumed in seeking NOCs, waiting in queues to get a task done, doing manually what is possible digitally at little cost to stakeholders, securing attestations from officers, verifications, and fulfilling legal requirements like; agreements on notarized stamp papers.
According to PIDE, the objectives of publishing the sludge series were to highlight the sludge involved in different activities, to induce the concerned agencies to work for reducing sludge, and to pin down areas where sludge can be reduced.
“It is important to examine sludge because it imposes costs upon the economy in terms of waste of resources, and the opportunity costs incurred. This discourages investments, lowers productivity, and therefore constrains GDP growth, ” said Spokesperson of PIDE according to the statement.