Public feedback urged for faster biz registration: ARTA

The Anti-Red Tape Authority is urging entrepreneurs to immediately report detected inefficiencies of government agencies where it regards business registrations even as the ARTA chief vowed to strictly implement its policies and build on his agency's digitalization initiatives and procedural successes in the speedy release of business permits.

ARTA Director General Ernesto V. Perez, addressing as guest speaker officers and members of the Rotary Club of Manila last Thursday, 14 September 2023  said the agency has increased business registrations of up to 22,534 corporations and 10,115 sole proprietors as of May, following the simplification of the business registration process from 13 steps to six steps.

Citizen's Charter

Perez stressed that government officers cannot demand applicants for business registrations documents and fees that are not published on government websites as required by the Citizen's Charter.

He said majority or 86 percent of government agencies and local government units have already submitted their official and simplified lists of government requirements for their various transactions and other efficient processing plans for better service to the public.

To speed up government transactions, Perez said ARTA also continues to work with telecommunications firms and related agencies for faster construction of communications towers as the government requires submissions of documents online through the Philippine Business Hub platform.

Permits for construction of towers

The ARTA director said permits released for tower constructions have increased from 9,363 to 36,264 after the creation of Joint Memorandum Circular No. 01 Series of 2021 which streamlines policies for business permits, licenses and certificates for construction of telecommunication towers.

He added that local government units implementing electronic and automated transactions for business registration have increased to 518 out of the total 1,634.

Perez said ARTA continues to hold discussions with both public and private sectors government sector to improve its services with the agency receiving up to 16,099 complaints from 2018 to August this year.

He stressed that ARTA has seen success in resolving complaints with a 98.75 percent closure rate.

Perez said a critical step in forcing government agencies to deliver good service and maintaining its performance in that regard is to aggressively educate the public about ARTA's policies and spreading awareness about the agency's complaint hotlines 1-2782 and 8888.

"We cannot be fully aware of the problems if the public do not share their complaints. We must immediately punish government officials for violations to show we're serious about effecting ease of doing business," he explained.