Ease of doing business: reforms under consideration of SECP, BoI

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and Board of Investment (BoI) are working jointly to introduce reforms to make doing business easier in the context of annual ranking of countries by ease of doing business in the World Bank's Doing Business Report. According to BoI official, the time to register a company is reduced to four hours in one-go where requirements are submission of name availability with three options and incorporation application with model memorandum of association and articles of association.
The beginning of the financial year 2018 has brought a fresh air of reforms as SECP has introduced two other reforms regarding ease of starting a business. The merger of procedure to notify the appointment of CEO with company incorporation procedure is one of the reforms.
The SECP has further reduced fee involved in company registration due to merger of several statutory forms into a single form. The current name reservation and company registration fee for single member company with a paid up capital up to Rs 100,000 is Rs 1,550 under online mode and Rs 3,000 under offline mode. Previously it was Rs 2,300 under online mode and Rs 4,500 under offline mode. Both reforms have their legal backup to insure the protection that an incumbent business requires.
Considering the world's best practices for company registration, the single online procedure has been sought through reforms. The SECP in this regard has combined procedure for company name reservation and company incorporation. This helps the new start-ups register companies in a single step through e-Services rendered by SECP. The much needed legal back-up was already in place and now implemented through SRO 704 (I)/2017, dated July 26, 2017.
The end result is less procedures, lesser time in company registration and reduction in cost of starting a business. The SECP has taken up a huge challenge to implement the reforms on creating an enabling business environment at federal level. The Board of Investment and SECP are committed to implementing reforms for a well-documented economy and a formal growing business sector.
The World Bank ranked Pakistan at 147th out of 190 countries in its 'Doing Business 2018' report and on 142nd place at starting business ranking in recent past. The report noted that Pakistan implemented some business reforms in 2017 - making it easier to register a new business, transfer commercial property and facilitate cross-border trade.
Pakistan is among the South Asian economies that carried out a record 20 business reforms in the past year, bringing to a total of 127 the number of reforms enacted in the region over the past 15 years, says the report which monitors the ease of doing business for small and medium-enterprises around the world.