Business will soon be as easy as ABC

As a person with a career in finance, there are instances that friends ask me on opinions which would relate to their finance needs. One common question that I get from friends which would relate to finance or finance statutory compliance, especially now that it is January, is with regards to Business Permits.

I was able to attend a convention mid-2007 which mentioned about Cebu City’s Business Permits processing steps faster. The topic was handled by the government agency’s head, who incidentally was also a member of the professional organization which I belonged to. By that time then, the presentation focused more on the initial steps being undertaken by the Department of Trade and Industry Region VII, which is located here in Cebu City, to hasten the processing of regulatory requirements in opening a business.

Today I came across an article updating what I have learned of the said endeavor. Let me take you to it:

This project is spearheaded by the Department of Trade and Industry’s National Economic Research and Business Assistance Center in Region 7 (NERBAC). The focus of this department is to streamline business permitting and licensing process to aid new entrepreneurs in complying with government requirements, which is envisioning a one-stop shop for this processing.

Providing a one-stop-shop for business registration (sole proprietorships), permitting and licensing, the department has housed the four mandatory agencies: Social Security System, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Phil Health, and Pag- IBIG under one roof plus the addition of Cebu City government representatives to make processing and procurement of business permit a step easier and more convenient. With this, new applicants for business permits and licenses are spared from the usual tedious process of going from one office to another.

The process that will be undertaken by new registrants would involve registering business names with DTI, registering with the four mandatory agencies and securing a business tax payment certificate that will be needed to later on acquire a Mayor’s permit after certain requirements are complied within 60 days. On this scenario, an applicant can process his application in one day on those five government offices.

This definitely is a clear sign of the government’s desire for entrepreneurs to be globally competitive by reduced cost and less bureaucracy. This is a very welcome news for the City’s business community as this steps are usually the most time consuming process that an a new business undertakes. Further, this will encourage regulatory compliance to even those micro-sized businesses that will in effect benefit the country through its tax and licenses payments. Resorting to fixers to process this mandatory requirement will definitely minimized, if not totally eradicated as this would show entrepreneurs that working out the requirement themselves is not that difficult.

My two thumbs up on this innovative idea!

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