Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
The entry titled "Horror stories from the Mexican burueacracy."
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Home > Uncovering Mexico > Archives > 2008 > September > 11 > Entry
Horror stories from the Mexican burueacracy
When it comes to opening a new business, Mexico also misses the mark. The country is ranked 115th in that category. No wonder experts often complain that outdated bureaucracy is strangling small businesses and exacerbating Mexico’s chronic job shortages.
President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday announced he is taking aim at Mexico’s bureaucracy (as many have before him), pledging to reduce the number of administrative procedures and applications (needed for everything from renewing a passport to obtaining a marriage license to getting an environmental impact report on a new development) from 4,200 to less than 3,000.
To kick off the fun, Calderon launched a contest for citizens to nominate the country’s worst bureaucratic hurdle.
Have any of you been ensnared in the scary world of Mexican bureaucracy? We’d love to hear your horror stories.
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By Ed Ales
September 11, 2008 8:33 AM | Link to this
If you want to make certain expenses (travel, meals, gas, entertainment, tax deductible, at the time of payment, you have to hand out your companies taxID, and a tax approved form is filled by the the establishment and handed back to you to take with you.
Think about it, if you go on a business trip, at the hotel, lunch, pump and car rental, to mention a few, you need to spend 6-10 minutes to get these forms.
One suggestion for them, insert a 2D bar code, like the one in boarding passes, in the companies TaxID you present, and have every business read the 2D bar code to make the process instantaneous.
By Emerald
September 11, 2008 3:26 PM | Link to this
It was such a nightmare for me to apply for a CURP card (which is similar to a social security identification number in the U.S.) The offices that issue these out only serve the first 100 people who get there when the office doors open.
So hoards of people are desperate to get in and even start forming lines as early as 5 a.m! The way this system is designed just makes it so easy for office workers to ask for bribes. Sadly, I had to pay a $200 peso bribe. I feel if I hadn’t I’d still be trying to claw my way in.
There must be some other way for these government offices to handle this!
By The Taxman cometh
September 12, 2008 11:17 AM | Link to this
Yes, the scary bureaucracy is that MEXICO has 12,000,000 citizens in the United State Illegally. That is pretty scary to me. Neither MEXICO or the USA seem to think it a problem.
I DO!
By eljefejesus
September 13, 2008 3:31 PM | Link to this
I’m amazed that the bureaucracy in mexico remains so excessive, it seems it will be difficult to catch up with a fast-moving world if only baby steps are taken, but some change is better than nothing. unfortunately, that low-expectation is derived from former mexican president vicente fox’s administration and the complete lack of modernization reforms in the face of obstructionist parties like the PRI and the PRD. it was long overdue for the mexican voters to teach the PRI a lesson, and now it looks like it will be the PRD’s turn.
However, I hear the PRI may be voted back into greater congressional control to replace the
PRD, which seems ridiculous and stupid to give the PRI any power if it is not to real reformers.
And a reminder to the truly stupid, this topic was not meant to be about undocumented or illegal immigration, are there so many stupid racists out there still that don’t know the difference? Don’t be a skunk at a picnic.