The one-stop-shop business permit processing at the BAYS Center will be transferred to SM City-Bacolod starting tomorrow to provide more comfort and convenience to the taxpayers of the city, Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia said yesterday.

The one-stop-shop at SM will be located at the mall’s Event Centre at the North Wing and is open from Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Leonardia also endorsed yesterday the request of City Treasurer Annabelle Badajos to the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod for an extension of the deadline in the payment of business taxes, fees and charges from January 20 to February 28.

Permits and License Division head Ardis Jaculina said there will have no surcharge for the renewal of business permits until February 13.

Leonardia said that both the city government and the mall management have agreed to place the one-stop-shop at SM to provide more comfort and convenience to those processing their business permits.

He said the transfer of the one-stop-shop to SM City-Bacolod is also expected to improve collection efficiency.

Jaculina said that all 15 offices comprising the one-stop-shop will accommodate clients at SM, adding that all systems are now in place and they are all ready for tomorrow.

She said, however, that after the encoding at SM, payments will still have to be made at the City Hall which is near from mall.

Jaculina said they will implement a new system the Electronics Business Integrated System which will replace the Tax Revenue and Collection System.

If, in the past years, the business permits could be replicated, including the signatures of government officials, it cannot be done now because the business permit is not pre-printed, she said.

Jaculina said they are now using a special paper which has a bar coding and security feature – the seal of Bacolod and the silhouette of the new government center which can never be scanned or copied.

Leonardia, who was the main proponent of the one-stop-shop during his previous term as mayor, said he is happy that the one-stop-shop gets a lot of positive feedback from taxpayers, and this was even adapted by the administrations that followed his previous term.

He pointed out that this was one of the considerations why Bacolod has been cited as the “Most Business Friendly City” in the Philippines. And this concept of the one-stop-shop has been featured in many magazines of different local government units all over the Philippines, he added.

Meanwhile, SM mall manager George Jardiolin announced that through SM Foundation Incorporated, SM-Bacolod is currently constructing a two-storey building in two areas which are VAGRES or Vista Alegre-Granada Elementary School and Alangilan National High School.

Jardiolin said they are constructing one-storey two classroom building with toilets in both schools.*CGS

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