Entrepreneurs can now bid goodbye to long lines, waiting rooms, and countless forms just to register their business.
The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA), together with its partner agencies, launched the first phase of the Central Business Portal (CBP), an online one-stop shop for business registration. This site has everything an entrepreneur needs—from business-related information to actual transactions such as securing business permits, licenses, and clearances.
Compared to the 13-step manual process (which can take up to 33 days to complete), business registration on the CBP can be accomplished with just one step in less than a day. The CBP allows entrepreneurs to apply for approval from the Security and Exchange Commission and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) as well as generate BIR tax identification numbers, pay for BIR filing and registration fees, and register employer numbers for SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG.
Through the Unified Application Form, all agency requirements involved in the business registration process are integrated, eliminating the burden of having to fill out redundant entry forms with different agencies.
The creation of the CBP is in line with Republic Act 11032, or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018, which aims to streamline the current systems and procedures in government services.
In the World Bank’s 2020 report, the Philippines ranked 171st among 190 economies in the “Starting a Business” indicator. The indicator measures the number of procedures, time, cost, and capital requirement for a small- to medium-sized business to start up and formally operate. ARTA projects that the country’s rankings can move up to seventh once the CBP is fully implemented.