One of the aims of the programme for Bureaucracy Reduction and Better Regulation is to keep a permanent lid on increases in business administrative costs. To this end, the adoption by the Federal Cabinet of the Programme of Work for Better Regulation on 28 March 2012 was followed by the introduction of the Bureaucracy Cost Index (BCI), which shows how the administrative burdens incurred by businesses are altered by new legislative instruments.

The baseline figure is the business administrative burden as of 1 January 2012, which corresponds to a BCI of 100. Federal Government decisions that impact on business administrative burdens influence the BCI.

A BCI of 102 on a particular date, for example, would mean that business administrative burdens had risen by two percentage points since 1 January 2012. A BCI of 99, on the other hand, would indicate a fall of one percentage point in the burden since the start of 2012.

The source data for the BCI come from the online database on bureaucracy costs administered by the Federal Statistical Office. The Office uses this database to calculate the monthly BCI. The monthly index update takes place in the middle of each month.

Preventing new red tape

In future, it is not only the administrative burden for business arising from information obligations that will be assessed, presented and subjected to critical scrutiny, but also the entire compliance costs incurred by citizens, business and the administration.