Barrier removed to speed up small business licensing process

Minister of State for Finance Senator Kwasi Thompson announced yesterday that the Cabinet recently approved the removal of a physical planning precheck required to obtain a business license for low-risk small businesses.

“We believe that our country does well when we create a dynamic environment for the private sector to grow and innovate. One example of our efforts to facilitate the ease of doing business and reduce the barriers to starting a business is the recent Cabinet approval to remove the requirement of the prechecks conducted by the Department of Physical Planning before a business license is issued to a low-risk business, in order to significantly reduce the business licensing time for the majority of Bahamian small businesses,” he said during a Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation (BCCEC) and Ministry of Finance webinar yesterday.

“The removal of the physical planning prechecks will simplify and shorten the process for obtaining a business license and therefore encourage new businesses. This step slows down the issuance of a business license as even the smallest, most low-impact home-based small business must be visited by Physical Planning personnel. Removing this step will both speed up the issuance of both business licenses to low-risk, home-based businesses and radically improve the utilization of available skills at the department and allow them to focus on enforcement and more suitable oversight responsibilities.

“The Department of Physical Planning will be advised of all applications submitted through the Department of Inland Revenue (DIR) for a business license in order to carry out their spot checks. If a business is in breech, the DIR can initiate the procedures to either suspend, restrict or revoke the licenses.”

In 2019 the government also introduced provisional business licenses for first-time small businesses that are considered low risk or home-based in an effort to speed up the business license application process.

The post Barrier removed to speed up small business licensing process appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

source https://thenassauguardian.com/barrier-removed-to-speed-up-small-business-licensing-process/