The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) signed on Friday, Sept. 27, three Memoranda of Agreement (MOAs) with e-payment platforms PayMaya, Gcash, and Landbank’s LinkBiz to provide a suite of online payment options for sole proprietors who wish to apply or renew their business names.
Launched along with DTI’s new Business Name Registration System (BNRS), the digital payment options aim to make the process of business name registration and renewals more convenient for the public.
“Long queues, inefficient and slow services in government will soon be a thing of the past. Our agreement with ePayment platforms completes our Business Name Registration System as we are now able to provide our citizens the convenience of having to transact with DTI through their mobile phones at the comfort of their homes, or wherever they are, 24/7,” said DTI secretary Ramon Lopez.
Lopez said the DTI is pushing to make “Ease of Doing Business” more viable and for the government to provide a responsive and client-friendly services to the public.
“The government’s current thrust to make its services public-friendly is a giant step towards global competitiveness and of course a happy citizenry. We are proud to be part of this transformation to e-government, enabling both sides — the citizens and the government,” said PayMaya founder and CEO Orlando B. Vea.
For its part, PayMaya is providing its universal payments platform to DTI to accept all forms of non-cash payments. For online payments, the BNRS site is now powered by the PayMaya Checkout payment gateway, allowing DTI to accept any Visa, Mastercard, and JCB credit, debit, and prepaid card payments for business registration fees.
For those without a payment card, they can sign up for a PayMaya account by downloading the PayMaya app on their iOS or Android devices and use the mobile number associated with their account when they pay via the BNRS.
The initiative is a response to reduce government inefficiencies and employ digital technologies to make the process of doing business in the country simpler and easier for all, in support of RA 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018, which was signed last year.
By offering digital payments for business registration, prospective entrepreneurs no longer have to face long queues or suffer delays in processing their registration, which could impact on the growth of their business and the economy as a whole.
The digital payment initiative is in line with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ goal of increasing digital transactions in the country to 20% by 2020 under the National Retail Payment System (NRPS).
