DTI wants transfer of sole proprietorship to SEC

By BERNIE CAHILES-MAGKILAT The Department of Trade and Industry is looking at pushing for the transfer of single proprietorship registration to the Securities and Exchange Commission to simplify procedure and further ease of doing business in the country. DTI Secretary Ramon M. Lopez told reporters at the launch Friday of the National Business One-Stop Shop (NBOSS) they are going to revive this proposal to the SEC. There are more sole proprietorship establishments that seek business registration with the DTI because these are comprised of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) compared to the number of corporations that are registered with the SEC. The micros alone account for the bulk of 80 percent of the 99.9 percent while the small and medium have 9-10 percent. Lopez cited the importance to pay attention to the MSME sector because they already account for 37 percent of total gross value added, although it could be higher. Thus, the launch of NBOSS that brings all government agencies involved in starting a business in one location is meant to cut processing time in the application and registration of one-person corporation to one day or less from the current 33 days. Anti Red Tape Authority (ARTA) Director-General Jeremiah Belgica led the launch of the NBOSS in collaboration with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). NBOSS is located in the SEC office at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC). The NBOSS is a physical co-location and integration of the processes of all national agencies connected with starting a business. These agencies are Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Social Security System (SSS), Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth), and the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG) for a streamlined business registration process for One Person Corporation applicants. Belgica noted that Pagibig and SSS are the most complained about government agencies. NBOSS also features the usage of a Unified Business Application Form which will provide convenience to the public by accepting application of business permits in a central location and promoting the use of the electronic payment systems for registration and filing fees. Eventually, the NBOSS is to be complemented by the online operation of Central Business Portal (CBP), which is being developed by DICT. The CBP shall serve as a central system to receive applications and capture application data involving business-related transactions, and may provide links to the online registration or application systems established by national government agencies. With the implementation of the NBOSS and CBP, ARTA projects that the entire process of starting a business can be completed in nine steps in seven and a half days, an improvement from the current 13 steps and 33 days. With that the NBOSS is expected to improve the Philippines’ score in the Starting a Business indicator for the World Bank’s Doing Business Report. In the 2020 Doing Business Report, the Philippines improved its ranking to 95th out of 190 economies from the 124th spot in 2019. The country, however, dropped to the 171st from the 166th in 2019 on the Starting a Business indicator. In order to address this slip in ranking, ARTA has sped up the establishment of the NBOSS among other initiatives. The NBOSS launched in SEC will be the first among many locations that would soon be made available in other parts of the country.