- Company Registrar, Inland Revenue, and Labour Dept. integration
The single window for business registration will be launched in November, putting an end to cumbersome registration processes which inconvenience local businesses and deter foreign investors.
An official from the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade (MoDSIT) told The Sunday Morning Business that with this platform, the Department of Registrar of Companies (DRC), Inland Revenue Department (IRD), and Department of Labour will be consolidated to ensure a seamless integration between these three bodies.
In the process of creating this single window, the first step, which is the integration between the DRC and the IRD, has already been completed.
The final step, which is the integration between the Department of Labour and the first two bodies, is the one that will be completed in November.
The introduction of a single window for business registration is an initiative driven and monitored by the Ministry while the line agencies DRC, IRD, and Labour Department have been tasked with the implementation. Amongst these three bodies, the DRC will play the central and co-ordinating role.
The official noted that the upcoming presidential elections would not impact the full implementation of the single window as the bureaucratic work has already been completed and it is only the technical work that remains to be completed at the moment.
This is expected to eliminate the delays and inefficiencies associated with the registration of companies and the subsequent processes.
The single window for business registration partially came into effect April last year with the integration of the Department of Labour and the Company Registrar under a new company registration system, called eROC.
Since then, new businesses can enrol their details and register with the Company Registrar and get their business registration number sent to their mobile, through a text message.
With the same enrolled information, a person can go ahead and register with the Inland Revenue Department as well, which is just one click away from the company registration on the same platform.
IRD registration will use the previously enrolled data but may require new information in addition to those entered earlier. Following this registration, businesses will be given their Tax Identification Number (TIN).
The process up to this is up and running now, and upon the integration of the Department of Labour into this platform, businesses would be able to obtain their Employee’s Provident Fund (EPF) numbers as well.
Most of the previously entered information will be used by the Department of Labour at this point and only if needed would additional information be obtained from the person.
The Ministry hopes to ensure that the Business Registration Number, TIN, and EPF numbers reach the customers within 24 hours since filling the application in the form of a text message.
eROC’s groundwork for this initiative began in May 2017 and for the development work, Rs. 57 million was provided by the Companies Fund of the Department of Company Registrar. The project was executed by KPMG Sri Lanka for DRC under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
The platform provides a number of services including facilities to check registered companies, submission of registration applications, status of name approvals, and status of registrations in the company dashboard.
In addition to this, the DRC has also amended Section 9 of the Companies Act, taking another burden off the people who start businesses.
Section 9 (1) earlier required the registered business to give public notice of its incorporation, specifying the name, address of the company, and the company registration number within 30 working days of its incorporation.
Following the amendment that was made three months ago, instead of the companies giving their public notice, the DRC will issue the notice on behalf of them.
