The Anti-Red Tape Authority (Arta) will launch nationwide next month the Central Business Portal (CBP), an online one-stop shop for registering businesses in the Philippines.

It used to take business applicants 33 days with 13 steps to register a business, according to the Arta. But with the CBP, business registrations can be done in just one step and completed in less than a day.

The CBP offers a single site for all business-related information, which aims to promote effective service delivery and transparency in the government, Arta said in a statement on Thursday.

It aims to facilitate the registration of business, renewal of permits and other activities through online transactions. It had its soft-launch last August in select law and accounting firms, but it will have a nationwide launch next month.

For now, Arta said applicants could access the CBP to acquire Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) certificate of registration for one-person and two- to four-person corporations, generate Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) TIN and order of payment, and register Social Security System, Pag-Ibig and Philhealth employer numbers.

CBP also features a unified business application form designed to capture information from the applicant only once, thus eliminating the undue burden of filing redundant entry forms with different agencies involved in the business registration process.

Additional features including the registration process for regular corporations and the e-payment for BIR services will be made ready for the national launch on Nov. 16, the Arta said. CBP is a joint initiative of the Arta, Department of Information and Communications Technology, SEC, BIR, Pag-Ibig Fund and Philhealth.

By: Roy Stephen C. Canivel
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer