Companies can now be registered with SECP in a day

 

In order to further promote corporatisation in the country, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has revamped operations at its three major offices located in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.

“Incorporation and facilitation desks have been established at these Company Registration Offices, which will ensure facilitation to the investors so that companies are incorporated within a day,” said a press release issued by the SECP on Monday.

Furthermore, in order to reduce the turnaround time in business startups and ease the process of incorporation, the registration of companies with a single object has been allowed.

This will enable registration of companies on the same day subject to the condition that registration documents are filed under the online mode.

“This swift mode of registration is likely to further promote corporatisation of the business sector,” the SECP said.

The apex regulator pointed out that a number of other measures had been introduced, resulting in a substantial reduction in the registration fee for small companies and the filing fee for companies with a small capital base, waiving of the name availability fee, provision of complimentary certified true copies of company formation documents, reduction in the time to register by merging the name availability and incorporation processes, etc.

Moreover, optimal utilisation of information technology in service delivery is ensured through enabling online payment of fee through credit card and the online fund transfer facility, enabling online issuance of digital signatures, etc.

The SECP also expanded its physical outreach through the establishment of its registration office in Gilgit-Baltistan, Capital Market Hub in Abbottabad and facilitation centre in Sialkot.

It believed that all these measures were likely to provide investor-friendly environment to the corporate sector.

“The reforms are also likely to improve the country’s starting-a-business and doing business rankings annually published by the World Bank to provide a comparative analysis of the doing business reform activity across the globe. It will also ensure documentation of the economy.”