Obtaining construction permits is a complicated process for businesses in Lithuania. Excessive regulations prolong the construction process and create unnecessary administrative burden for builders.
According to the annual World Bank “Doing Business” report, construction regulations require a firm to go through at least 12 different procedures, which last about 103 days, to build a warehouse in Lithuania.
After carefully analyzing construction process in the country, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute prepared proposals that would streamline the construction process and improve Lithuania’s position in next year’s “Doing Business” index:
- Cancel an obligation for a builder to provide information on the ownership rights to the land plot to the municipal administration when applying for ‘Special architectural requirements’ (SAR);
- Merge ‘project proposal approval’ and ‘SAR issuance’ procedures;
- Create a one-stop-shop for obtaining special requirements and technical conditions;
- Do not issue SAR when detailed plans are prepared;
- Supplement the category of ‘Simple’ structures with low-risk buildings from the ‘Non-exceptional’ structures category;
- Reduce the time limits for carrying out the construction completion procedure and the approval of the declaration of the completion of construction;
- Automatically transfer the certificate/declaration of the completion of construction to the Centre of Registers via IS “Infostatyba”.
If implemented, these proposals would improve Lithuania’s position in the next year’s “Doing Business” index. In ‘Dealing with Construction Permits’ Lithuania could rise from 18th to 7th place, in ‘Getting Electricity’ from 54th to 29th place, and in overall ranking – from 20th to 15th place.
You may read the full document in Lithuanian here.
