Registrar of Companies open all 7-days
The government is making it easier and quicker to start a business in Sri Lanka by opening the office of the Department of the Registration of Companies (DRC) for business registration and other functions on all seven days of the week barring public holidays.
Turning a new page in the country’s history, the operations of the 38 year-old department are now being carried out on week days during normal duty hours and Saturdays and Sundays from 9 am to 2 pm, Registrar General of Companies D.N.R. Siriwardena said.
The entire company registration process is to be fully automated commencing at the end of this month reducing the waiting period for the launch of a new company, he revealed.
The aim of the government is to reduce the time taken to start a business to four days from 10 days by streamlining functions at the DRC and strengthening the activities of Inland Revenue and Labour Departments, he added.
The government has also taken measures to remove the stamp duty on newly issued shares of companies while the DRC has expedited the process of obtaining a registration number for the Employees Provident Fund and Employees Trust Fund sometimes back, he told the Business Times.
A sum of Rs. 50 million has been allocated for the establishment of the National Business Registry and the Office of the Trade Prosecutor towards ease of doing business in Sri Lanka, a senior Treasury official disclosed.
| Long-awaited company online registration soon | |
| The Department of the Registration of Companies (DRC) will be launching its online registration portal by the end of this month making business registration much easier and less cumbersome, Registrar General of Companies D.N.R. Siriwardena said.KPMG Sri Lanka was the supplier of the automated solution for this e-Registration of Companies Project (e-ROC), he disclosed adding that Informatics Co. has developed the software and web based platform. The total cost of the project is in the region of Rs. 57 million and it was borne by the Companies Fund of the department. The new web-based platform has been installed with the aim of saving entrepreneurs or their representatives the trouble of having to visit the company registrar office in Colombo in person to hand over duly filled registration forms and make payments or to file their returns annual reports and other relevant documents, he revealed. Mr. Siriwardena said that entrepreneurs based in the outstations especially in rural areas will be able to register their companies and make payments online without coming to Colombo. This will reduce the paper work and expedite the company registration process, he said, adding that entrepreneurs will have to simply fill the details of their companies online or via SMS and make payment using their credit or debit cards, he pointed out. The department will also introduce an electronic document management system and a dedicated call centre for customers to reduce the time for registration and filing of statutory information and to improve the data quality for both the government and the public. The DRC and the Labour Department will share information following the launching of the web-based single window for business registration. The Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) has facilitated the integration system connecting the two departments along with the Department of Inland Revenue. This single window provides applicants to obtain business registration numbers, EPF numbers and the TIN numbers by filling a single application online. It will reduce the time taken to register a business currently from 10 days to one day. The department will not discontinue the current manual process; he said adding that anyone who wishes to register their companies by visiting the DRC could do so as usual. Even foreigners can register their companies in Sri Lanka from their countries online, by paying through the nominated credit cards. Once the online application is paid and is successful, the Certificate of Incorporation will be posted to the registrants address if requested, he revealed. Since this is an end-to-end automation of functions of the department, all the current transactions could be done online and manual as well, he said pointing out that the payment gateway is credit card-empowered. “The main aim of the e-ROC project is to reduce unnecessary time consuming paperwork and help more startup registration as well as to speed up the process,” Mr. Siriwardena said. According to available data the total number of companies registered in Sri Lanka under the Companies Act increased by 11 per cent to 85,587 in 2016, from 77116 in 2015. |