Minister of Economic Affairs, Sen. Hon. Michael Halkitis participated in the press briefing held at the Office of the Prime Minister this week. Among other things, the minister sought to clarify requirements for business licensing which he assures will all be processed by the end of March.
“We undertake that all of the business licenses renewals and applications will be dealt with before March 31st so no one will be in danger of their application not being completed. Because there are people from the very small businesses to the very large businesses are now applying for either renewals are new business licenses we’ve decided to fast track a certain category of licenses so your taxi drivers, straw vendors, roadside vendors we’ve agreed to fast track those. We’ve brought in some additional or we’ve deployed some additional employees to the Department of Inland Revenue to deal with this busy period and as well those workers are working overtime.”
The Minister also spoke to the new requirement of businesses who rent to provide real property tax information on their landlords. “Someone asked me, ‘okay so you’re asking the business person to do the job of Inland Revenue.'” Well we’re asking for an assist. We’re asking for an assist because it benefits us all. We’re not asking any business to be concerned about whether the landlord has paid his real property tax or not. All we’re saying is in your renewal if you have the assessment number give it to us. If you cannot get it just tell us the name of the landlord to whom you pay your rent and the location of your business. This will eventually benefit us all.”
