PIAF lauds ease of business initiatives taken by Government

Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) on Tuesday appreciated the government for introducing reforms to make doing business easier in the context of annual ranking of countries regarding ease of doing business.

PIAF Chairman Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, Senior Vice Chairman Tanveer Sufi and Vice Chairman Shahzeb Akram said in a media statement that Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the Board of Investment (BoI) had introduced several reforms regarding ease of starting a business, which were steps in the right direction.

The time to register a company had also been reduced to four hours in one-go where requirements were now only submission of name availability with three options and incorporation application with model memorandum of association and articles of association, they mentioned.

The PIAF office-bearers said that the SECP had further reduced fee involved in company registration due to merger of several statutory forms into a single form.

The current name reservation and company registration fee for single member company with a paid up capital up to Rs 100,000 was Rs 1,550 under online mode and Rs 3,000 under offline mode. Previously it was Rs 2,300 under online mode and Rs 4,500 under offline mode. Both reforms had their legal backup to ensure protection that an incumbent business required.

Considering the world's best practices for company registration, the single online procedure had been sought through reforms.

The SECP in this regard, they said, had combined procedure for company name reservation and company incorporation.

This helped the start-ups register companies in a single step through e-services, rendered by

the SECP. The much-needed legal back-up was already in place and now implemented through SRO 704 (I)/2017.

They also mentioned that World Bank Doing Business-2018 Report had also noted that Pakistan implemented some business reforms in 2017, making it easier to register a new business, transfer commercial property and facilitate cross-border trade - APP