18,136 biz permit applications OK’d

THE BUSINESS Bureau approved the application of 18,136 business establishments as of January 31 when the onestop shop concluded its registration and renewal of business permit processes.

The number was part of the 39,351 business permit applications, including the 3,669 applications filed in in December.

Lawyer Marissa Torentera, Business Bureau chief, said that the number was still good despite the failure of the city to breach the 41,000 mark.

“Even if we don’t surpass the 41,000 last year, it is still a good number considering that some establishments have retired already,” Tor

rentera said. Of the 18,136 business establishments who were issued with business permits, 318 are new. Torentera, however, said that the last day of registration was not conducted until 12 midnight on Friday as the city was among those that experienced shaking when a magnitude 5.2 earthquake hit some parts of South-Central Mindanao. “Due to the earthquake, we have been asked to vacate the place. That’s why we did not push through the registration and renewal on 12 midnight,” she said. But the non-extension of the deadline of the one-stop shop did not affect the number of registrants as business owners were not also expected to do the processing of their applications late at night. “Those who came to us during the last night of the registration were mostly those who had not paid yet. We did not expect those who would still start from step one, which is the filling up of application forms and the like. We expected those who would come by the last night were those who would be paying and those who would proceed to step three, or presentation of the documents,” she said. She said that those firms who have not yet paid will be penalized with 25% surcharge. Meanwhile, those who already paid but have not yet presented their documents can still process without the penalty. “As long as they already paid, they can still proceed to step three,” she said.