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No 2018 Biz License certificates issued yet

Culprit is the ‘new’ process at Treasury causing delay
fili@samoanews.com

Businesses in the territory have been issued receipts for payment of their business licenses for 2018, while the Treasury Department works out details of the new process for issuing certificates, which in the past had been physically typed.

Treasury is looking at releasing the first batch of business license certificates this Friday, says Deputy Treasurer for Revenue Division, Keith Gebauer.

Samoa News received a couple of inquiries from the private sector, regarding business licenses for 2018, after being issued receipts instead of a business license certificate. One private sector business tells of being told back in November by the Revenue Office to check back after Christmas, but was told on Dec. 27, certificates are not ready.

Responding to questions, Gebauer explained yesterday that Treasury is currently finalizing changes to how it processes and prints business license certificates.

“We are moving away from physically typing each business license certificate as had been the past practice and making better use of the recent system upgrades,” he explained further.

“We delayed the issuance of any business license certificates until we had worked out the details of our new process, as a result, the early business license applicants still have not been issued their certificates,” he noted.

Among the concerns from the private sector that sent inquiries to Samoa News, is being fined by Commerce Department/ASG for not displaying their 2018 business license certificate in a public area of their business as required by law.

“We recognize and apologize for the delay this may cause some in our business community,” said Gebauer, adding that Treasury “has communicated with our partners” at DOC and they are aware of this temporary delay.

“We anticipate the first 500 or more business license certificates will be ready by this Friday, with the remaining to be available for pick up shortly thereafter,” he said, adding that should anyone in the community have further questions, please contact Treasury Department.