Business registrations hit 10-year-high in ’22, SAYS DTI

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on Wednesday said the number of businesses which registered with them this year is at its highest in a decade, 7.4 percent more than last year’s level and nearing the one million mark.

The DTI described 2022 as a “record-breaking year,” registering a total of 932,097 new and existing business names (BNs), a notable increase compared to 2021’s 867,647 and 2020’s 916,164.

“The rising number of sole proprietors registering their business names is indeed a positive sign that the Filipino entrepreneurial spirit is alive and recovering from the pandemic,” Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said in a statement.

“We are pleased that more sole proprietors have undertaken the necessary first step of registering their businesses, starting with their business names,” he added.

Retail

Newly registered BNs accounted for 88.8 percent of the total, equivalent to 827,491, while the remaining 104,606 were renewals.

According to data from the Philippine Standard Industrial Classification, most of these businesses are into retail, with 180,406 into retail and selling through “sari-sari” stores.

This is followed by restaurants and mobile food services activities with 75,391 registrations.

Those into real estate buying, selling, renting, leasing and operating of self-owned or leased apartment buildings, nonresidential and dwellings followed in third.

Pascual said they intend to make business registration less complicated and seamless, and are working together with the Department of Information and Communications Technology to fully implement an end-to-end registration in support of e-governance measures toward a more efficient public service delivery and better experience for the public.

Tax perks

Earlier in August, the DTI said they are keen on giving tax incentives to newly registered businesses as part of their thrust toward helping small businesses to grow and thrive in the country.

Trade Assistant Secretary Mary Jean Pacheco told the Inquirer back then that they already presented to lawmakers the DTI’s plan to give a three-year tax exemption to newly registered online merchants under the proposed “Internet Transactions Act.”

Pacheco said they suggested that sole proprietorships—businesses that have one owner—must not be an affiliate, subsidiary or a franchise of any existing company to avail themselves of this tax exemption.

New businesses wanting to take advantage of this tax perk must also have no previous or existing registered companies or partnerships. INQ