The Davao City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) is looking into the possibility of processing all business applications and renewals online in line with efforts to provide more convenience to both businessmen and employees.
Acting city treasurer Erwin Alparaque said on Thursday that the need for digitalization is in accordance with Republic Act 11032, also known as the “Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018.”
Alparaque said that the new scheme will attract more investors as Davao City has a growing number of business establishments. Based on the 2018 records of the Davao City Business Bureau, there are more 39,000 registered business establishments in the city.
“This will fast pace the period of application time. Some burdensome requirements will be removed as we will fully implement this new system,” he said.
Alparaque said that the city is slowly adapting the single unified business permit application, wherein applications and payments will be made, using personal computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones.
“Time will come that applicants of new and renewed permits and renewals will no longer be done in the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO),” he said during the iSpeak media forum at the City Hall of Davao.
The CTO is located inside the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP).
“We will strive our efforts that transactions with other regulatory offices will be smooth in implementing this new permit application system,” Alparaque said.
The acting CTO chief said that the city is only one of the few cities in the country who has a digitalized application system. Business Bureau officer-in-charge Marissa Torentera said that the office is now adopting the quick response code (QR code) to identify the authentication of the business permits issued to the business establishment.
Torentera also said that text notifications are being activated to people transacting inside the bureau.
“With this new system, clients can leave the SP for the meantime, while waiting for the them to be catered. Once their transaction number will nearly be called, we will notify them through text,” she said.
However, she said that they deactivated the notification system during the renewal of the business permit, that ended yesterday, January 31, due to the large volume of applicants.
