Registrar-General goes fully electronic end of June
The Registrar-General’s Department (RGD) has hinted that it will scrap the names of companies which fail to register on its electronic platform by the end of June, 2016.
Advertisement
An Assistant Registrar at the RGD, Mrs Lysbeth A. Osae, who dropped the hint, said some companies which were registered manually before the electronic system came on stream had failed to re-register despite two previous deadlines given them.
“Due diligence ought to be done during re-registration to ensure that companies do not leave out any vital information or give the RGD any false information because it could attract legal sanctions,” she said.
Event
Mrs Osae was speaking at a breakfast meeting held in Accra last Wednesday under the auspices of Ernst and Young Global Limited, an organisation with speciality in assurance, tax transactions and advisory services.
The event, which was dubbed “Meet the regulator series,” was the third in a series of quarterly meetings with regulatory bodies in the country.
The initiative provides a platform aimed at giving business owners and companies the opportunity to interact with key regulatory bodies and stakeholders on the dynamics of the business environment.
Online registration
Mrs Osae said the RGD had digitalised the registration process since 2011 as part of measures to ensure efficiency and remove barriers created by middlemen.
“As part of the digital system, we have introduced an online portal to ensure that registrants do not necessarily waste time going to our office to register,’’ she said.
She explained that the online registration was free of charge and required a tax identification number to go through the process.
Mrs Osae also said some companies failed to file their tax returns as required by the Companies Act (Act 772) and warned they would face sanctions after the re-registration process was complete.
Institutional reforms
A tax expert and partner of Ernst and Young Company Limited, Mr Isaac Nketiah Sarpong, said constant engagement between companies and the regulatory bodies would remove certain misconceptions in the business environment.
He urged companies to ask the right questions and stick to the rules of engagement in order to build a better working world.
