The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business

Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

MORE than 10,000 Business Licences have been issued within the past week, a Cabinet minister said yesterday, as he sought to reassure the private sector that “steady progress is being made” in processing their applications.

Michael Halkitis, minister of economic affairs, told the Prime Minister’s Office media briefing that the vast majority of Business Licence renewal submissions - around 19,000m - have either been issued or approved with the Department of Inland Revenue just waiting for payment of the relevant fee.

Seeking to counter suggestions that Business Licence renewals are being impeded by bureaucracy and red tape, and demands for small businesses to produce information verifying their annual turnover, the figures he quoted indicated that the Government is making progress after just 3,000 were said to have been issued and approved one week ago.

Mr Halkitis said: “I can tell you now that we have 13,468 that have been issued; that’s completely closed, approved and issued. We have another 5,597 that just have been approved, but awaiting payment. So if we add those two together, we will get just under [sic; over] 19,000.

“We have 9,859 where some additional information has been requested, and we’re just waiting on information. We have 1,166 to review from Wednesday, so I’m sure that number is lower, and we’ve had 651 cases rejected and that have to come back. Steady progress is being made.”

Concerns have been voiced over the Department of Inland Revenue’s requirement that corporate tenants provide their landlord’s real property tax assessment number when submitting their Business Licence renewals, as the Government seeks to implement a series of cross-checks to determine whether taxpayers are complying with their obligations. If the assessment number cannot be obtained, tenants then must provide their landlord’s name and their own location/address.

Mr Halkitis also previously said the Department of Inland Revenue was not requiring small businesses with an annual turnover of less than $100,000 - and which have to pay zero such fees - to provide income statements as proof of turnover. This newspaper had been informed that the agency is asking, post-submission, for figures such as revenue and gross profit in checking the accuracy of turnover figures provided to it.

The minister said yesterday: “I would just like to make one point here, because we’ve seen a lot of feedback, and it has entered the political realm where people are talking about why are we requiring people to present certain information. And I’d just like to say this: It’s the duty of the department to do their due diligence, to make sure that the information being presented to them is correct.

“They use their discretion with that, but I should say that the way forward for business is to be in the position where you are keeping your records, and you have records of your revenue and records of the expenditure because that’s the way to know whether your business is profitable.”

“We should not look at it as the Department of Inland Revenue imposing measures on people, but just as sort of a reinforcement of what good business practices are, whether it’s a small business, medium business, the start-up business or a large business.”

Mr Halkitis said the Department of Inland Revenue is in the process of creating “customer service units” that will cater to businesses of all sizes - from the largest to the smallest - in a bid to improve relationships with the private sector and make the payment of taxes as smooth and easy as possible. He added that all Business Licence applications will be “resolved” by the March 31 renewal deadline, and going forward we expect it to be a much easier process”.

He added: “The point I wanted to make is that steady progress has been made, and the point I made last week was we fast-tracked a number of categories. We’re working hard, we have staff dedicated to it, the licences are good until the 31st so people can still conduct business, and so we’re moving steadily and hopefully I can commit that next week we will see those numbers increase even more in terms of cases being closed or issued.”