Applicants for business permit in Davao City are urged to process online for an efficient transaction.
“As of now meron ng naka complete sa kanilang online application on the issuance of the permit. From application down to the system to the payment to the issuance of the permit,” said lawyer Lawrence Bantiding, head of the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO), during the I-Speak media forum on Thursday.
Bantiding said transacting online is more efficient for both the city and the applicants.
“It would be of great help ang digitalization lalo na sa collection with digitalization no more issuance of receipts. Kung ano ang dapat singilin considering coming from the other revenue generating offices, meron silang tax order of payment. It would be convenient for us. Isa pa sa generation of reports hindi na tayo babalik sa mano mano doon sa system meron na tayong report immediately,” he said.
In August this year, Councilor Bernie Al-ag, chair of the Committee on Trade, Commerce and Industry of the City Council, proposed two ordinances — digitizing business permit transactions and applications and adding plantilla positions for more efficient services at the Business Bureau.
Titled “An Ordinance Streamlining and Digitizing the Business Permit Applications” and “An Ordinance Restructuring the Organizational structure of Business Bureau to Add Plantilla Personnel and Appropriating Funds Thereof” aim to streamline business transactions and permit applications in Davao City.
“The main purpose of these ordinances is to make sure that the mandate of our Mayor Baste Duterte is to give our constituents, specially the businessmen, a positive experience in their transactions in the city. We need to streamline our process, we need to digitize the process. It is my desire that people from far-flung areas need not go here to apply for a business permit. Let us take advantage of the technology,” Al-ag said.
Al-ag also said the main problem relative to the slow issuance of the business permits in the case of new applicants is the excessive and tedious requirements and the means of accessing the same is not fully digitized and the lack of personnel in the Business Bureau Division.
Meanwhile, the Davao City Business Bureau (CBB) will be extending its processing hours before the 2023 cut-off on January 31, 2023 to help taxpayers and business owners avoid surcharges on top of their business permit application and renewal fees.
CBB head Maribel Paguican said that for the first two working days of January, the Business Bureau was met with many business tax payers hoping to catch the deadline for business permit issuance.
The CBB called on taxpayers to process their permits online through the CBB’s online application system. She said online processing and payments will not only decongest the bureau’s processing centers but will also speed up the process for the applicants.
Those who are unable to access the bureau’s online platform may go to the nearest CBB one-stop shop. The one-stop shop is a streamlined processing service that aims to save taxpayers’ time and money by simplifying the business permit application process and removing unnecessary steps to the assessment process.
There are Business Bureau one-stop shops in the Sangguniang Panlungsod building, Almendras Gym, NCCC Mall Buhangin, Calinan Gym as well as in the District Treasury Offices in Toril, Tugbok, Bunawan, Baguio, Marilog, and Paquibato.
On January 31, the cut-off day for business permit processing for the year 2023, operating hours for the one-stop shops in the SP building and Almendras Gym are from 8 a.m to 10 p.m., while the one-stop shop at NCCC Mall Buhangin will be opened from 8 a.m to 8 p.m. The one-stop shops in Calinan Gym as well as the ones in the District Treasury Offices of Toril, Tugbok, and Bunawan will be opened from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
